LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



MODERN CITIES 



AND 



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BY 



SAMUEL LANE LOOMIS. 



WITH AN INTRODUCTION 



BY 

REV. JOSIAH STRONG, D.D, 



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NEW YORK: 
THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY, 

9 BOND STREET. 



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COPYRIGHT, 1887, BY 
THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY. 



Printed by Edward O. Jenkins' Sons, 
20 North William St.. New York. 



PBEFATOKY NOTE. 



The following chapters, with the exception of the 
sixth, comprise a course of lectures which were pre- 
pared for the students of Andover Theological Semi- 
nary, and delivered at Andover in November, 1886. 
The third chapter had also previously been used as a 
lecture, in Cincinnati, before the students of Lane 
Theological Seminary. The greater part of the first, 
second, fourth, and fifth chapters subsequently appeared 
in the Andover Review, with whose kind permission 
they are reprinted here. The whole matter, with con- 
siderable additions and some changes, is now respect- 
fully offered to the public in the hope that it may 
contribute to the general information and deepen the 
general interest in the great subject with which it 
deals, and may thus help to prepare the way for the 
adoption of more earnest and systematic efforts look- 
ing toward the advancement of the Eedeemer's king- 
dom among the neglected masses of the great towns. 

Brooklyn, N. Y., July 1, 1887. 

(3) 



INTRODUCTION. 



The city is the Gibraltar of civilization. It is not 
because our urban population is nearly or quite one- 
fourth of the whole that it is being made the object of 
special study. The writer of this book sees that the 
city is strategic ; and in directing our attention and 
effort to the strategic point, we are following a divine 
example. When God looked down upon this earth to 
select a native land for Christianity, he laid his finger 
on that country in which the highways of the nations 
met. The world's altar was erected at that point — the 
point where the three great civilizations which were to 
exert the profoundest influence upon the world, the 
Jewish, the Greek, and the Roman, came into the com- 
pletest conjunction. That fact was illustrated by the 
inscription over the Cross, written in Greek, in Hebrew, 
and in Latin, that all the motley crowd might read. The 
place where the Cross of Christ was planted was a 
strategic point. The Lord Jesus Christ set us this ex- 
ample when he bade his disciples begin at the metropo- 
lis. That word was remembered by the Apostles when 
they went forth to plant churches in Antioch, in Ephe- 
sus, in Athens, in Corinth, and in Rome. 

The city is the great centre of influence in modern 
civilization, as it has been in all civilizations. In the 
city is massed the mighty power of wealth, wdth its f ar- 

(5) 



6 INTRODUCTION. 

reaching influence. In the city are located the great 
corporations with their marvelous power over the whole 
land. In the city live the owners of most of the mining 
and railway stocks, and from the city these mines and 
railways, with their armies of employes, are controlled. 
In the city is the press — that tree of the knowledge of 
good and evil, whose leaves are not altogether for the 
" healing of the nations." The city, then, is the great 
center of influence, both good and bad. It contains 
that which is fairest and foulest in our civilization. It 
is the mighty heart of the body politic, which sends its 
streams of life pulsating to the very finger-tips of the 
whole land ; and when the blood becomes poisoned, it 
poisons every fiber of the whole body. Hence the 
supreme importance of city evangelization. 

But there is special need of evangelizing the city 
because the city is exposed to special perils. There 
are great perils threatening our Christian civilization, 
such as wealth, its worship and its congestion, anar- 
chism and lawlessness, intemperance and the liquor 
power, immigration and a superstitious Christianity; 
all these threaten the land as a whole, and these are all 
massed in the cities. And not only so, but in the city 
every one of these perils is enhanced. Take as an 
illustration, immigration, which is intimately connected 
with most of the other perils. Our ten larger cities 
contain only nine per cent, of the entire population, 
but nearly one-quarter of the foreign. A little less 
than one-third of the population of the United States 
is foreign by birth or parentage, but this element 
rarely constitutes less than two-thirds of our larger 
cities and often more than three-fourths. That is, 
whatever strain immigration puts upon our institutions 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

is more than twice as great in the cities as in the 
country. The fact that foreigners are thus massed 
seems to some an occasion for congratulation. It cer- 
tainly affords a great opportunity and lays on us a 
great obligation, but it increases the peril. When 
foreigners are scattered among the native population, 
each being surrounded by Americans, they are forced 
to learn our language and are soon led to adopt our 
ideas and habits — in short, are speedily Americanized. 
But when massed in cities, they gather in quarters 
occupied often exclusively by their own nationality. 
Our language is not a necessity; they come but little in 
contact with our life, and old habits and ideas give way 
but slowly before American influence. If a thousand 
anarchists were scattered throughout a State, they 
would be harmless; but when these firebrands of soci- 
ety are brought together in the city, they inflame each 
other. "Whether the massing of the enemy is an advan- 
tage or disadvantage to us, depends on the relative 
strength of the two armies. " Stonewall " Jackson, at 
the head of 3 3,000 troops, defeated four armies with an 
aggregate force of 64,000 men in about a month. His 
generalship showed itself in striking his enemy when 
separated. "Divide and conquer." Had the Union 
armies in the Shenandoah Valley been massed, Jack- 
son would have been helpless save to retreat. If our 
forces are tenfold those of the enemy we may congrat- 
ulate ourselves that by massing his men he has made 
their capture easy. But what if his forces are ten- 
fold greater than ours? In six Assembly Districts 
of New York the aggregate population is 360,000, for 
which there are thirty-one Protestant churches and 
3,018 saloons. For the whole country east of the Mis- 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

sissippi there are nearly as many churches as saloons, 
but for this population — larger than Cincinnati — there 
are nearly one hundred times as many saloons as 
churches. In the First Assembly District of New York 
there were, in 1880, 44,030 people, seven Protestant 
churches, and 1,072 saloons — one hundred and fifty- 
three saloons for every church. These churches are 
open, probably, seven or eight hours a week, the saloons 
sixteen or more hours a day. While the Gospel of 
cur Lord Jesus Christ is preached from one church 
seven or eight hours, the gospel of death and hell is 
preached from each of a hundred or a hundred and 
fifty of these " synagogues of Satan " a hundred hours I 
And the saloon is only one of many arms of the 
devil's service. We do not giye the Gospel the half 
of a fair chance. What a forlorn hope is a struggle 
against such odds. To congratulate ourselves before 
an enemy thus massed is to rejoice in our own defeat, 
unless we are prepared to order up adequate reinforce- 
ments. 

It might be shown that each of the perils mentioned 
above, is much greater in the city than in the country, 
-^but it is sufficiently manifest thai the city is peculiarly 
endangered. It is here that we should bring to bear 
most powerfully the conservative influences of society. 
The good general strengthens his line opposite those 
points where the enemy's lines are the strongest. But 
how is it in the city? Do we find, as a matter of fact, 
that the two great conserving influences of society — 
namely, the home and the church —are correspondingly, 
powerful in the city? as much stronger there than 
in the country, as these perils are there greater than 
i where ? In the country, the groat majority live 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

in homes of their own; in the city, the small mi- 
nority. 

In 1880 there were two hundred and forty-three 
thousand families in New York City, and it was esti- 
mated that only thirteen thousand of them lived in 
their own homes — a fact, which in its bearing on the 
morals of the city, contains a whole volume of mean- 
ing. And as land appreciates in value with the growth 
of our cities, the relative number of renters will in- 
crease. Thus in the city the institution of the home is 
weak and growing weaker. 

As for the church, there are from three to six times 
as many churches for a given population in the coun- 
try as in the city; and in our great cities there are 
large populations nearly or quite destitute. For the 
twentieth Assembly District in New York, with a pop- 
ulation of over sixty thousand, there are but three Prot- 
estant churches. In the whole country, for every sixty 
thousand people there are one hundred and twenty 
evangelical churches. For one district in New York of 
fifty thousand souls there is but one Protestant church; 
and it is said that in the heart of Chicago there are 
sixty thousand people without a single church, either 
Protestant or Catholic. 

In reply to the assertion that the city is not so well 
supplied with churches as the country, it is said, and 
truly, that the city churches are much stronger than 
those in the country. But it is also true, and decisive 
of the point in question, that the proportion of evan- 
gelical church members is only from one-half to one- 
fifth as large in the great cities as in the country. And 
with rare exceptions, if any, church provision seems to 



10 



INTRODUCTION. 



be steadily falling behind the growth of urban popula- 
tion, as indicated by the following table. 



, JERSEY CITY, 
NEWARK, N. J. N> J< ' 



BROOKLYN. 



NEW YORK. 



In 1840 
In 1850 
In 1880 
In 1870 
In 1880 
In 1887 



1 Prot. Ch. to 

955 souls. 
1 Prot. Ch. to 

1,215 souls. 
1 Prot. Ch. to 

1,263 souls. 
1 Prot. Ch. to 

1,590 souls. 
1 Prot, Ch. to 

1,684 souls. 
1 Prot. Ch. to 

1,717 souls. 



1 to 827 souls. 
1 to 935 souls. 



1 to 1,873 souls 



1 to 1,575 souls 
1 to 1,760 " 
1 to 2,035 " 
1 to 2,085 " 
1 to 2,673 " 



1 to 2,066 souls 
1 to 2,446 " 
1 to 2,775 « 
1 to 2,479 " 
1 to 3,046 « 
1 to 3,750* " 



If the growth of our great cities were suddenly 
arrested, there would still be a grave responsibility rest- 
ing on the churches to evangelize neglected districts; 
and on the other hand, if our cities had no slums, no 
churchless multitudes, their rapid growth would de- 
mand a greater Christian activity than now exists, sim- 
ply to provide for the new-comers. There is a city of 
I thirty-five thousand added to Chicago, and one of fifty 
thousand added to New York every year, for which 
there must be Christian provision. In 1880, as we have 
seen, there was in New York one Protestant church to 
every three thousand people (one-sixth of the average 
for the whole country). Simply to have held our own, 
without taking one step forward, there should have 
been added during these six years one hundred Prot- 
estant churches to the Christian forces of the city. 

* Present population estimated at 1,500,000. But the city directory 
just issued makes the population 1,600,000, which gives 4,000 souls 
to every Protestant church. 



INTBODUCTION. 11 

Not one-half or quarter or tenth of that number have 
been organized. To meet the needs of these three 
hundred thousand souls ouljfour churches have been 
added. Doubtless there are cities better off than New 
York, and there are others which are worse. It is true 
of all the cities whose religious statistics the writer has 
looked up, that their church provision is falling behind 
the growth of their population. 

It is evident that the evangelization of our cities is 
exceptionally important ; that the cities are exception- 
ally exposed to perils ; that in them the great conserva- 
tive influences are exceptionally weak. This volume 
shows, by it3 analysis of the social composition of 
American cities, that in their evangelization we have ex- 
ceptional difficulties to overcome. What then ? Do such 
facts justify discouragement ? A discouraged Christian 
is a spectacle for angels. Every believer has a right to 
take Paul's sublime declaration of confidence as a 

formula in which to write his own name, " I, 

, can do all things" required of me, "through 



Jesus Christ, which strengtheneth me." To a mighty 
faith the heaping up of obstacles is only a stimulus ; 
the higher they rise, the greater the inspiration. 

This volume not only points out the necessity and 
magnitude and difficulty of the work to be done in 
our cities, but abounds in valuable suggestions touch- 
ing methods of work. Because English civilization i3 
older than ours, the problem of the city arrested atten- 
tion and attracted study sooner there than here. In 
the work of city evangelization we have much to 
learn from the Christian workers of London and the 
McAll mission in Paris. This book enables us to profit 
by their experience and success. Its author, after five 



12 INTRODUCTION. 

years' experience in city work, which made him a good 
student of its problems, spent the greater part of a 
year in the heart of London, making himself thor- 
oughly familiar with English methods of city evangel- 
ization. His presentation of facts is worthy of all the 
confidence to which careful observation and accuracy 
of statement are entitled. 

It may be objected that English character and con- 
ditions so differ from ours that we should not find their 
methods applicable here. In answer be it said, that 
Rev. Dr. Rainsford's remarkable work in St. George's 
Church, New York, affords a practical demonstra- 
tion to the contrary. His experience shows that Eng- 
lish methods are quite adapted, or at least adaptable, 
to American cities ; and the sooner our churches ac- 
cept the conclusions of this book, and act on its valuable 
recommendations, the sooner will the "threat of the 
cities " cease. 

Josiah Strong. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE GROWTH OF MODERN CITIES. 

This, the age of great cities — Size and growth of London 
and English cities, of Glasgow and Scottish cities, of 
Berlin, Paris, and Continental cities — Increase of cities 
in the United States — Attractive power of cities — Natural 
limits to their growth — Law of the growth of cities — 
This illustrated in the history of London— Reasons for 
their remarkable increase during the nineteenth century : 
the introduction of the steam-engine and mechanical in- 
vention resulting in increased wealth, increased popula- 
tion, improved sanitary conditions, rapid transportation, 
cheapened food, increased demand for work and work- 
ers within the towns, the expansion of commerce, and 
changed methods of agricultural labor — The cities of the 
future, 17 

CHAPTER II. 

THE SOCIAL COMPOSITION OP AMERICAN CITIES. 

The proportion and condition of their inhabitants engaged 
in each of the three kinds of work : production, distri- 
bution, and (personal and professional) service — Term 
worMngman explained — Proportion of workingmen to 
whole population in American cities — Separation between 
working-class and other classes— This aggravated by con- 
ditions of modern life and differences of race, language, 

(13) 



14 CONTENTS. 

and religion — Proportion of foreign-born inhabitants in 
our cities — Nationalities of our foreign-born citizens — 
Distribution of tbe various foreign elements among our 
cities — Proportion of Roman Catholics to Protestants 
among foreign-born population — Homogeneousness of 
London and Continental cities contrasted with our own 
condition, .......... 54 

CHAPTER III. 

THE THREAT OP THE CITIES. 

Dependence of Christian civilization upon the Christian 
religion — Danger attendant upon the corruption or decay 
of faith in any class of society — Failure of the American 
Protestant churches to win the workingmen in cities — 
Abandonment of down-town churches— Strength and 
weakness of foreign Protestantism — Progress of the Ro- 
man Catholic Church — Insufficiency of church accom- 
modations in the poorer parts of our towns — Reflex in- 
fluence upon the churches of the absence of workingmen 
from their services — Reasons for alienation of the poorer 
class from American Protestant churches : foreign birth 
and training, strife and jealousy between labor and capi- 
tal — Tokens of disintegration of Christian civilization 
j in the cities consequent upon the alienation of the masses 

J from the faith of our fathers : corruption of municipal 
government, drunkenness and the saloons, increase of 
crime and pauperism, decay of the Christian Sabbath, 
progress of anarchic social theories, . . . .76 

CHAPTER IV. 

CHRISTIAN WORK IN LONDON— THE CHURCH OP ENGLAND. 

Central position of London in world-struggle between good 
and evil, and consequent importance of its religious life to 
the student — Peculiarities of its social and religious prob- 
lem — Elements possessed in common with our own cities 



CONTENTS. 15 

—Number of churches and benevolent enterprises— The 
Church of England— Cathedrals and their use — Choral 
music — Services of parish churches — Retreats — Paro- 
chial missions — Guilds — Number of clergy and others 
employed by single churches — Lay-helpers' association — 
District visitors — Mothers' meetings — Girls' Friendly So- 
ciety — Deaconesses and Sisters of Mercy — Friendly So- 
cieties — Temperance Societies — White Cross movement 
— The work and methods of St. Anne's, Limehouse— 
Of St. Mary's, Whitechapel— Of St. Jude's, Whitechapel 
— Free Exhibition of Fine Arts — University Extension 
Society and Toynbee Hall — Oxford House — The East 
Enderies, 107 

CHAPTER V. 

CHRISTIAN WORK IN LONDON— DISSENTING CHURCHES- 
OTHER MOVEMENTS. 

Number and denomination of dissenting churches in Lon- 
don — Noticeable features in their regular religious serv- 
ices and evangelistic work — Account of the work and 
methods of Highbury Quadrant Church and its missions 
— Tolmer's Square Church, and Tolmer Institute — East 
London Tabernacle and the work of Rev. Archibald G. 
Brown with his missionaries among the destitute of East 
End — Oldenham Institute — London City Mission — Street 
Preaching— The Salvation Army, 135 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE McALL MISSION. 

The " Man of Macedonia," and the call of the modern apostle 
— The commencement and expansion of the McAll Mis- 
sion — Religious condition of France when the work be- 
gan—Decay of Catholicism — Weakness of Protestantism 
— "Oblivion "of the Bible — Deadness of conscience — 
Fantastic notions of religion — Religious condition of 
working-classes in American cities compared with that 



16 CONTENTS. 

of Paris — Peculiar conditions gave rise to peculiar meth- 
ods — Size and character of salles or mission-halls, and 
their advantages — Doorkeepers and their duties— Value 
of Christian songs— Speakers and character of addresses 
— How the appointments are made — Time and number of 
religious services — Societes Fraternelles : Results and 
value of the work — Effect on French Protestantism, . 163 

CHAPTER VII. 

SUGGESTIONS REGARDING CHRISTIAN WORK FOR OUR CITIES. 

The working-force of the Church must oe increased — Kind of 
workers needed — Responsibility of more prosperous for 
the poorer parts of the town— Importance of Christian 
visitation — Value of the work of Deaconesses and Sisters 
of Charity. 

As to nature and frequency of services — Non-liturgic churches 
most successful among the poor — Element of worship, 
however, too much neglected — Value of congregational 
singing — Importance of frequent meetings — Many small 
local meetings more effective than few central ones. 

Value of the Parish System in Christian work — Weakness of 
the "plan of attraction" — Efficiency of definite, local 
work — Hindrance and evil of denominationalism. 

Need of cultivating in the Church a better spirit of sympathy 

y with workingmen — The spirit of the brother, not that of 
the patron, befits the Christian — More points of contact 
needed between the Church and the daily lives of the 
people — More sympathetic interest in their social and in- 
dustrial problems — Pressing importance of giving the 
Gospel to the poor, . . 182 



CHAPTEB I 

THE GROWTH OF MODERN CITIES. 

When men affirm that history repeats itself, they ut- 
ter only half a truth. The people of all times are so 
much alike, and similar situations recur so frequently, 
that nearly every present event may have some sort of 
parallel in the past ; and yet the current of history is 
no tide sweeping perpetually up and down the same 
old channel, but, like some majestic river, it rolls 
forever onward. No age is a mere repetition of what 
has gone before it ; the main features of each are new, 
unforeseen, and unparalleled. Greece was not another 
Egypt, nor Borne another Greece. The decay of the 
dominion of the Csesars, the rise of Papacy, the con- 
quests of the False Prophet, the Crusades, the found- 
ing of the Frankish empire, the Beformation and Be- 
naissance, the overthrow of feudalism and growth of 
constitutional liberty, — each of these great movements, 
with the events that cluster about it, has furnished in 
its turn a fresh chapter in the world's history quite un- 
matched by any which had preceded it. 

So also is it with our own time. The world in which 
we live is not merely different from that our fathers 
knew. It is a world the like of which has never been 
known by any race of men in any age before. Upon 
the nineteenth century have fallen certain changes in 
the social and industrial conditions of mankind of so 
2 (17) 



18 THE GROWTH OF MODERN CITIES. 

great moment, that in consequence of them Chris- 
tendom has been transformed and the whole aspect of 
its society changed with almost the swiftness of a revo- 
lution. Accompanied by neither clash of arms nor 
thunder of cannon, the forces which have thus revolu- 
tionized society have wrought so silently, that until the 
last few years they had almost escaped observation. 
Yet none the less steadily, speedily, and mightily have 
they done their work, bringing with them results that 
have filled life with new problems and perils together 
with fresh opportunities and hopes. These changes are 
most conspicuously illustrated by the subject with which 
we deal in this chapter. 

We live in the age of great cities. It began to be so 
named nearly half a century ago,* and every year since 
then has added fitness to the title. For size, for num- 
ber, and for influence, the cities of our time have never 
been approached. Rome has always stood as supreme 
example of the vast and mighty city. In Gibbon's day, 
the most populous of modern capitals had not equalled 
her. But the present Paris is probably much larger 
than she ; the present London more than twice as large, 
^nd our own metropolis fully her equal, f And Rome 
stood alone in her greatness ; she did not, like New 
York, have a Brooklyn close beside her, a Philadelphia 
two hours away, and sixty other towns of considerable 
size within a day's journey. The other large and flour- 

* The Age of Great Cities. Robert Vaughan, London, 1843. 

t Sec Gibbon, vol. iv, chap. 31; abo notes in Smith's edition, p. 
89, London, 1834. Gibbon estimates the population at 1,200,000; 
Bureau de la Malle, 563,000 ; Zumpt, 2,000,000 ; Hoeek, 2,205,000; 
Encyclopaedia Britannicx, about 1,000,000. 



THE GROWTH OF MODERN CITIES. 19 

ishing cities in the empire were few and widely sepa- 
rated. 

One of the chief reasons that used formerly to 
occasion the building of cities has disappeared ; roving 
bands of robbers and savage beasts are no longer at 
large ; throughout the civilized world life is as safe in 
the country as in the town. Security has ceased to be 
reckoned among the advantages of a city residence. 

Much of the loneliness and isolation that once be- 
longed to the country home have also been removed. 
The extension of railway and telegraph lines, the widen- 
ing circulation of papers and periodicals, the increased 
facilities of trade, and many other things, have com- 
bined to lessen the inconveniences of rural life, and 
make it brighter and more attractive. 

Moreover, as men have grown in wisdom, their ap- 
preciation of natural beauty and the attractions of 
mountain, field, and forest, have become keener. 
Nevertheless, each successive year finds a stronger and 
more irresistible current sweeping in toward the centres 
of life ; a larger and larger proportion of the earth's in- 
habitants crowded together in the great cities, and a 
rural population always diminishing in relative size and 
influence. 

The extent of this movement, and the suddenness 
with which it has sprung upon the nineteenth century, 
cannot be better illustrated than by a glance at the 
growth of the world's metropolis. 

London is an ancient as well as a modern town ; it 
seems to have had at least two thousand years of growth. 
In Tacitus' day it was already a thriving place, full of 
merchants and their wares.* 

*Tac. Annul. , lib. 14, chap, 33. 



20 THE GROWTH OF MODERN CITIES. 

A writer of the third century calls it " illustrious for 
the vast number of merchants who resorted to it ; for 
its extensive commerce and for the abundance of every 
kind of commodity which it could supply." The Ven- 
erable Bede, in the eighth century, terms it, " An em- 
porium of many nations who arrived thither by land 
and sea." By a writer of the sixteenth century, it was 
said to be " the largest in extent, the fairest built, the 
most populous, and the best inhabited of any city in 
the world." 

As the greatest of marts, and as capital and me- 
tropolis of one of the most remarkable of nations, it 
has, for a thousand years, held a high place among the 
chief cities of Christendom. So far as one can judge 
by old maps and pictures, and such obscure hints as 
the ancient annals give us, the growth of London, from 
Roman times until the close of the last century, although 
very irregular, was most of the time exceedingly slow.* 

The London of three hundred years ago seems to 
have been considerably smaller than the present Bos- 
ton ; that of two hundred years ago, according to a 
somewhat careful computation, had reached 670,003 in- 
/liabitants,')* which is less than the population claimed 
for Chicago. It took the great city another century to 
climb to a place equal to that of Philadelphia, and half 
a century more, bringing it down to 1836, did not make 



*The old historians give widely varying estimates, which are ap- 
parently little more than guesses. An estimate based on the hills of 
mortality, which first began to be kept at that time, would show a 
population of something more than 250,000 in the last decade of the 
16th century. See discussion of the subject in Stow's London, also 
Eneyclopcedia Britannica, 9th ed., vol. 14, page 820. 

fSir William Petty, Essay on Political Arithmetic. 



THE GROWTH OF MODERN CITIES. 21 

it equal to the present New York, if you include with 
New York, Brooklyn and Jersey City. But in order to 
make a city equal in size to the London of to-day, you 
must pile together New York, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, 
Chicago, Boston, St. Louis, Baltimore, Cincinnati, and 
San Francisco. 

There are in London — assuming the average annual 

o o 

rate of increase which prevailed between 1860 and 1880 
to have continued since the last census — not less than 
5,500,000 souls. By London, we mean, in every case, 
what is called " Greater London," which consists of the 
metropolitan and city police districts, and extends 
twelve miles in all directions from Charing Cross.* 

In the last hundred and twenty years preceding the 
year 1800, London increased in size only fifty per cent. 
In the eighty-six years since the year 1800 London has 
increased five hundred per cent. More people live in 
London alone than in the whole of Holland; more than 
in Sweden; more than in Portugal; more than in Ire- 
land or Canada; more by a million than in Scotland. 
She could furnish population for two countries like 
Denmark, and nearly enough for three like Norway. 
Three cities as large as the greater London would be 
almost enough to people Spain, with its present popu- 
lation; six would be more than enough to people Italy; 
seven, nearly enough to people France; and eleven, to 
people the United States. 

It is said that Macaulay, in his time, walked through 
every street of the metropolis. In order to accomplish 

*The exact figures of the census of 1881 are 4,766,661, and the 
average annual rate of increase between '61 and '81 is 2.89 per cent. 
Inner, or registration London, contained fewer people by 850,000. See 
Census of England and Wales for 1881, vol. iv., p. 13, London, 1883. 



22 THE GROWTH OF MODERN CITIES. 

that feat now, one would need to take a tramp of 
twenty-five hundred miles. Three hundred and fifty- 
more persons may be expected to sleep in London to- 
night than slept there last night; twenty-five hundred 
more than a week ago to-night. Every month adds a 
city of ten thousand inhabitants; every year one of one 
hundred and twenty-five thousand inhabitants. 

One may be helped to realize the extraordinary ex- 
pansion which the nineteenth century has witnessed in 
the city of the Thames, by considering what would be 
the consequence if the same rate of increase should 
continue a hundred years longer. Supposing London 
to keep on growing for the next century as fast as she 
has grown since 1860, by 1985 a population of over 
forty millions would be gathered about Charing Cross; 
which is more than all Great Britain and Ireland con- 
tain. Such a supposition is, of course, introduced only 
as an illustration. It does not seem probable that the 
great city can continue growing at the present rate 
much longer.* Yet we must remember that a London 
of forty million people cannot seem more unlikely to 
us than one of five millions to the men of a few cen- 
turies ago. The England of Charles I. had fewer 
inhabitants than the London of Victoria. Not until the 
days of the Iron Duke had the United Kingdoms gotten 
to have a population twice as great as that of the pres- 
ent metropolis. 

* Although the rate of iocrease during the last decade was some- 
what more rapid than during the period between 1SG0 and 1370, it is 
believed that since 1380 the rate has declined and that it is likely to 
continue slowly declining for the next fifty years. See paper en 
Population of London, by R. Price Williams, read before Statistical 
Society, June 16, 1385, printed with discussion in the journal of that 
society, London, 18S5. 



THE GROWTH OF MODERN CITIES. 23 

But London is by no means the only English city. 
Huge as she is, she contains only one-third of the city 
population of the island. There are in England and 
"Wales alone, twenty-seven other great cities, the small- 
est of which contains more than 75,000 inhabitants, 
whose size and sudden growth are not less astonishing 
than that of the metropolis itself. 

There are more people by several hundreds of 
thousands, within fifty miles of the central point of 
Manchester — which sits in the midst of the great towns 
of the north — than within the like distance of the cen- 
tral point of London. 

In 1£81 England and Wales had sixty per cent, of 
their entire population in towns and cities, and the 
rate of increase during the last two decades had been 
two and one-half times greater for the town than for 
the rural population. 

No more striking illustration of the centralizing 
tendencies of modern times can be found than that 
which Scotland presents. The country parts of that 
land contain absolutely fewer people to-day than ten 
years ago; especially the Highlands. Timid deer are 
now the only inhabitants of many a grassy glen that 
used to furnish at the chieftain's summons its quota of 
a thousand men; wild forest creatures are sporting in 
hundreds of deserted cots, amid the brown and purple 
hills and beside the silver lochs, which were once merry 
with the shouts of children. Across the Highlands, a 
broad belt of beauty stretching from sea to sea, extend 
the hunting-grounds of the American millionaire, Mr. 
Winans; a modest little place for sport, comprising some 
eight hundred square miles. When land will bring ten 
times as great a rent for deer park as for agriculture or 



24 THE GROWTH OF MODERN CITIES. 

pasturage,* is it a wonder tliat the crofters have to leave 
their homes to the foxes? For every acre of mount- 
ain land employed in deer forest in 1840, there are at 
least ten in the present year. In this way the strength 
of nearly 2,000,000 acres, or 3,000 square miles of Scot- 
tish soil, are consumed to-day. f Meanwhile, Scotland 
has as many sons and daughters as ever. Her popu- 
lation has been steadily increasing since the beginning 
of the century, at the average rate of about eleven per 
cent, with each decade; but all this increase, and more 
than all, has poured itself into the cities. The country 
people are but a remnant. Three Scotchmen out of 
every four live in some city. The Glasgow among 
whose masses Chalmers labored with such power and 
effect contained only about 150,000 inhabitants. To- 
day, resounding with the roar of wheels and hammers, 
and dim in the smoke of countless chimneys, Glasgow 
strides on toward her million at a rate of increase 
which outstrips that of Chicago itself, t The laddies 
and lassies of song and fiction may still be tending 
sheep amid the mountain heather and making love in 
fields of rustling rye, but the laddies and lassies of fact 
are toiling in shops, factories, and noisy dock-yards, 
and when they meet and greet, it is by gaslight among 
the mighty throngs of Argyle Street and Trongate. 

" While a few Scotchmen have castles and palaces, 
more than one-third of all Scottish families live in one 

* J. Allanson Picton. The Crofters Cry for More Land. Contem. 
Rev., Nov., 1885, p. 646. 

t Mr. Cameron, of Lochiel. A Defence of Deer Forests. Nine- 
teenth Century, Aug., 1885, p. 197. 

% The increase of Glasgow between 1871 and 1881, amounted to 
4L25 per cent. ; that of Chicago, to 40.73 per cent, 



TEE GROWTH OF MODERN CITIES. 25 

room each, and more than two-thirds in not more than 
two rooms each.* Thousands of acres are kept as a 
playground for strangers, while the masses have not 
enough of their native soil to grow a flower ; are shut 
out even from moor and mountain ; dare not take a 
trout from a loch or a salmon from a stream." f 

Ireland exhibits the preference of the folk of mod- 
ern times for city residences in the opposite way. For 
many years the Emerald Isle has been gradually losing 
her people, owing chiefly to the drainage of emigra- 
tion, but it appears that for every two who have left the 
towns, ninety-eight have left her rural districts. 

Cross the Channel, and in every European state which 
has felt the breath of the spirit of modern times, the 
same social tendencies are to be observed. On all 
sides cities are growing rapidly, while the population 
of country parts is growing very slowly — is at a stand- 
still, or is even decreasing. Brussels has gained 
twenty per cent, and Antwerp thirty per cent., while Bel- 
gium, as a whole, has gained but eleven per cent. 
During the last decade, the rate of increase for the 
towns and cities in Denmark has been nearly twice as 
great as that for the rural districts. In Sweden it has 
been four times as great ; in Norway ten times as 
great. The four chief cities of Bussia have doubled 
themselves within twenty years. The town population 
in Germany is growing about twice as rapidly as the 
whole population of the empire. The last census shows 

* This statement, while literally true in 1870, was not quite true in 
1880 — the condition of things having in the meantime somewhat 
improved. 

t Henry George. The Reduction to Iniquity. Nineteenth Century, 
July, 1884, p. 146. 



26 THE GROWTH OF MODERN CITIES. 

that there are actually fewer people in the rural parts 
of Prussia than ten years ago, but the cities are greater 
by twenty-five per cent. In 1850 Berlin was a com- 
paratively insignificant place, with some 400,000 inhab- 
itants ; she now ranks as third or fourth city in Chris- 
tendom and boasts a population of 1,316,382. The 
same tendency is strikingly illustrated in France. For 
many years her population has been almost stationary, 
and, much of the time, even declining ; yet, in the 
meantime, except for a brief period of interruption 
during the Franco-Prussian war, the French cities 
have steadily and rapidly increased in size and number. 
In 1846, out of every hundred Frenchmen, only twenty- 
four lived in the city ; in 1861, there were twenty-nine; 
in 1831, thirty-four. Since the war, up to 1881, Paris 
added to her number fifty thousand souls for every 
year.* The same movement of the people might be 
noted in Austria, Italy, Switzerland, and Holland, as well 
as Canada and Australia. Nowhere is it more remark- 
ably displayed than in our own country. It is not so 
surprising that men are crowded into the cities in Ger- 
many, which has 213 persons for every square mile of 
territory ; or in England, which has 446 ; or in Bel- 
gium, which has 508. But cities increase in the same 
remarkable fashion in the United States, where we have 
less than 20 persons to the square mile, not including 
Alaska, and there are still scores of millions of acres 
to be given away.f 

* Since 1881 her ratio of increase seems to "nave been much slower. 
The growth of Paris and of all French and Italian cities is hindered 
by " octroi duties," or taxes on all provisions brought into the town ; 
an arrangement which renders living much more costly within than 
outside the walls. 

t In 1S81, it was 17.29, or, including Alaska aud Iud. Territory, 
14.5 persons to the square mile. 



TEE GROWTH OF MODERN CITIES. 27 

The facts concerning the growth of American cities 
as reported by the census of 1880, have been widely 
circulated of late, especially in Dr. Strong's invaluable 
book;* but they will bear repeating. In 1790, one- 
thirtieth of our population lived in cities of eight 
thousand inhabitants and over. In 1800, the propor- 
tion of urban population had become one twenty-fifth ; 
in 1820, it was one-twentieth ; in 1830, one-sixteenth ; 
in 1840, one-twelfth ; in 1850, one-eighth ; in 1880, 
one-sixth ; in 1870, one-fifth ; in 1880, nearly one- 
fourth, i.e., 22.5 per cent.; from 1790 to 1880 the 
population of the country increased twelvefold, that 
of the cities eighty-six fold. In 1800, there were 
only six cities of over six thousand inhabitants ; in 
1880, there were two hundred and eighty-six. -J* 

In the older States of the Union, the cities are drain- 
ing the country in quite the European fashion. Hun- 
dreds of country towns in New England and New 
York have a population not half so numerous, and in 
other respects inferior, to what they had half a century 
ago. It is a common thing for the old farms to sell 
for less than the cost of the improvements on them. 
And yet so enormous is the increase of their great 
cities, that the Eastern States keep well abreast of the 
nation in its gigantic growth. Fifty-three out of 
every hundred inhabitants of Massachusetts reside in 
towns and cities, and two-thirds of these within twelve 
miles of the State House. As to the "West, its cities 
springing up and growing great and splendid as it 
were in a night, are the marvel of the world. "We be- 

* Josiah Strong, P.D., Our Country, New York, 1886. 

t See Tenth Census of the United States, vol. i., pp. xxviii. to xxx. 



28 THE GROWTH OF MODERW CITIES. 

liold with wonder such places as Minneapolis, St. Paul, 
and Kansas City, towns that had not been heard of 
twenty years ago, selling their corner lots at Broadway 
prices. 

A recent writer * has given a most ingenious illustra- 
tion of the change in the distribution of men which the 
latter-day life has brought about. He calls attention to 
the fact that the area of England and Wales is nearly 
the same as that of New York and New Jersey ; that 
the population of England and Wales in 1688 was 
nearly the same as that of New York and New Jersey 
in 1870. You have, then, two districts of practically 
the same size, inhabited by the same number of people 
of the same blood and language. The one belongs to 
the seventeenth, the other to the nineteenth century. 
The district of the seventeenth century had for 
5,500,000 people only five cities with a population 
greater than 10,000. The district of the nineteenth 
century has thirty-one such cities. Of the seventeenth 
century folk, less than one-fourth; of the nineteenth 
century folk, more than one half, are dwellers in great 
towns. 

Such illustrations might be multiplied to any extent, 
but quite enough have been presented to establish the 
fact that during the present century a wonderful move- 
ment has passed over the face of the whole civilized 
world, suddenly shifting great sections of the people 
from the country to the towns, thereby changing the 
problems of life in manifold ways, and giving to the 
cities of the present, and still more promising to those 
of the future, a prominence in the world's affairs 

* B. C. Magie, Jr. Scribner^s Magazine, vol. xv. 



THE GROWTH OF MODERN CITIES. 29 

hitherto unknown. Let us now examine the causes 
from which this movement has sprung. 

That mysterious force named gravity, which gives to 
all bodies mutual tendencies toward each other, varying 
according to their masses, has a parallel in human so- 
ciety. A man, as a man, has a peculiar attractiveness 
to every other man. The attractive power of a group 
of men is greater than that of an individual; and the 
larger the group, the greater the nmss of human life, 
the stronger is its influence in drawing outsiders to 
itself, and in holding those who have come to it. 

As a race, we love not solitude; but there is built 
into us a fondness and a strong necessity for fellowship 
with our kind; for, since thought is awakened by 
thought alone, love by love, and passion by passion, the 
mind depends upon contact with other minds, not only 
for its exercise, growth, and enjoyment, but even for 
life. What food is to the body, that intercourse with 
other minds is to the mind of man, with the difference 
that the mental appetite is insatiable, and grows with 
feeding. There is, therefore, nothing more natural in 
the craving which drives the wild creature forth to its 
hunting-ground than in the social instinct which draws 
men into the currents and centres of life. This uni- 
versal force of human attraction, like the force of gravi- 
tation, is, of course, frequently modified, and even 
nullified in its action by other forces. Eace and family 
affinities bind one more firmly to his kith and kin than 
to the rest of men. Peculiarities of taste and tempera- 
ment lead some to love solitude and hate society, and 
make certain sides of human nature particularly inter- 
esting to certain persons, and others distasteful. In 
some, the manhood is of a fuller, higher type than in 



30 THE GROWTH OF MOBEBN CITIES. 

others, and they are correspondingly more attractive ; 
while, from many, vice, poverty, and oppression have so 
beaten humanity out that little remains to invite the 
fellowship of men. Yet all these disturbing influences 
do not, on the whole, affect the operation of the great 
law, that man attracts man ; and that the greater the 
mass of humanity gathered about a centre, the more 
powerful upon the average outsider is the force of its 
attraction. 

Every town and city is therefore a magnet constantly 
drawing the people from without toward itself, and 
binding together those within its walls with a power 
directly proportionate to its size. The magnetic in- 
fluence of a great metropolis becomes so potent that 
multitudes find it too strong to be resisted. Thousands 
every year force their way into the midst of London, 
Paris, and New York, having no reasonable prospect 
of winning a livelihood, and insist upon staying there 
in miserable want rather than move out to more com- 
fortable quarters elsewhere. The very vastness of the 
manifold life that throbs and thrills about them has a 
certain subtle fascination so intoxicating that they re- 
gard the idea of living in any lesser place as quite in- 
supportable. Juvenal shows that old Some bewitched 
her populace by the same powerful spell. They used 
to pay for little, dark, wretched rooms a yearly rent 
great enough to have purchased a cheerful, comfortable 
dwelling in one of the lesser towns of Italy, but they 
could not be prevailed upon to leave the capital.* 

* " If you can tear yourself away from the games in the circus, you 
can buy a capital house at Sara, or Fabratiria, or Frusiuo for the 
price at which you are now hiring your dark hole for one year." 
Juvenal, Satir, 16o, 223, etc. 



THE GROWTH OF MODERN CITIES. 31 

In the following passage, Charles Lamb, in his own 
charming way, gives voice to a sentiment that is far 
from being peculiar to himself; it is the sentiment of 
the multitudes : 

" I have passed/' says he, li all my days in London, 
until I have formed as many and as intense local attach- 
ments as any of your mountaineers can have done with 
dead nature. The lighted shops of the Strand and 
Fleet Street ; the innumerable trades, tradesmen, and 
customers, coaches, wagons, playhouses; all the bustle 
and wickedness round about Coveht Garden; the 
watchmen, drunken scenes, rattles; life awake, if you 
awake, at all hours of the night, the impossibility of 
being dull in Fleet Street; the crowds, the very dirt and 
mud, the sun shining upon houses and pavements; the 
jewel shops, the old book stalls, parsons cheapening 
books, coffee-houses, steam of soup from kitchens, the 
pantomimes; London itself a pantomime and a masquer- 
ade, — all these things work themselves into my mind 
without a power of satiating me. The wonder of these 
sights impels me into night walks about her crowded 
streets, and I often shed tears in the motley Strand from 
fullness of joy at so much life." * 

In a great city every man finds in its highest devel- 
opment the side and sort of life that pleases him best. 
For the vicious, there are unbounded opportunities for 
vice; for those who love God and men, extraordinary 
advantages for philanthropic work and Christian fellow- 
ship. Many, with special musical, literary, or artistic 
talents, are quite alone in a small community with 
neither opportunity nor stimulus for growth in the di- 

* Charles Lamb, Letter to Wordsworth. 



32 THE GROWTH OF MODERN CITIES. 

rections toward winch their tastes incline them; but 
upon entering a city they find the surroundings so con- 
genial that they can never again be persuaded to quit 
them. With its libraries, lectures, public gatherings, 
book-stores, companionships, and above all, the per- 
petual stimulus of contact with many minds, the great 
city is the paradise of literary men. Hume pronounced 
it the only fit place of residence for a man of letters. 
Dr. Johnson declared that a man who was tired of 
London was tired of his own existence. " Sir," said the 
great man as he sat in Mitre Tavern beside Temple 
Bar, " the happiness of London is not to be conceived 
but by those who have been in it. I will venture to 
say, there is more learning and science within the cir- 
cumference of ten miles from where we sit than in all 
the rest of the kingdom." Dr. Chalmers, in comparing 
the country with the city pastorate, remarks, that while 
the latter lacks leisure, the former lacks stimulus, and 
that for the highest achievements stimulus is of far 
greater importance than leisure. In the same strain 
are Mr. Emerson's words: " A scholar is a candle which 
the love and desire of all men will light." 

Great cities have a special fascination for young men. 
They offer to the successful, high and tempting prizes. 
There is little in the position of leading merchant, law- 
yer, or physician in a country town to spur the ambition 
of the young; but those who hold the like positions in 
the cities are the princes and mighty men of the times. 
Ambitious fellows prefer a hard race with high stakes 
to one on an easier course with fewer competitors and 
contemptible prizes. Hence, they have flocked to the 
cities until a new attorney's sign has become a by-word, 
and a single advertisement for a book-keeper enough 



THE GROWTH OF MODERN CITIES. 33 

to bring an army about your door. Besides all these 
special attractions for special classes, who can measure 
the fascination for the masses of manhood, of the great 
city's unequalled facilities for instruction and amuse- 
ment ? The churches and the schools, the theatres and 
concerts, the lectures, fairs, exhibitions, and galleries — 
how widely on every side are the doors of lif e opened ! 
Even the streets and the shops have an attraction that 
few can deny ; the bright and costly goods displayed in 
the windows, the prancing horses and sparkling car- 
riages, the roar and rumble of drays, wagons, and cars, 
and the mighty streams of human beings that forever 
flow up and down the thoroughfares, exhibiting such 
an infinite variety of face, feature, form, and dress, 
from exquisite beauty to hideous ugliness, and from 
the richest silks and furs to the filthiest, faded, flutter- 
ing rags. But above and beyond all this is that vague 
delight at being one in the midst of a great multitude 
of men and women, which, though it may not often be 
defined or expressed, is the greatest of all the causes 
which contribute to the cities' growth. 

Such tendencies would draw the whole world into 
cities, — into one great city, perhaps, — were it not for 
the existence of certain opposite tendencies — centrifu- 
gal forces, as one may call them — which counterbalance 
the centripetal force and preserve the equilibrium of 
society. While, on the one hand, city life is richer than 
rural, on the other it is more costly and less healthful. 
It is more costly because food, fuel, and every needful 
product of the soil must be produced by others, and 
brought from afar; because competition for the land is 
great and rent high; because the cost of living being 
great, personal service is correspondingly costly. City 
3 



34 TEE GROWTH OF MODERN CITIES. 

life is less healthful than the rural, because of the dif- 
ficulty in getting a good and sufficient supply of the 
four things on which life chiefly depends: food, water, 
air, and light. Many must go with an insufficient quan- 
tity of food because of its costliness; and that they 
have, being the cheapest, is often unwholesome. Water 
is difficult to get, and unless brought from afar at great 
expense, is almost sure to be tainted with impurity. In 
closely crowded quarters filth quickly accumulates, and 
cleanliness can only be secured by eternal vigilance. 
No art has been discovered by which the air of a great 
town can be kept free from the disease germs and 
poisonous gases that reek from noisome places. Where 
thousands of furnaces are pouring their foul breath out 
into the sky, and where hundreds of thousands of 
human beings are always robbing the air of its vitality, 
a far less wholesome atmosphere necessarily prevails 
than on the mountain-side or by the sea; sickness comes 
on more easily and is harder to throw oft\ All these 
difficulties obviously bear most heavily upon the poorer 
classes. The tattered fringe which hangs upon the 
border of the social fabric is broadest in cities. That 
portion of the people, comprising the poorest, the 
weakest, and the most helpless, which is being gradually 
crowded to the wall and crushed amid the strife and 
struggle of the strong, is found largely — in some coun- 
tries almost wholly — in the towns. 

Such, then, are the practical checks upon the growth 
of cities. They can increase no faster than the costli- 
ness of living and wholesomeness of life within their 
walls allow. The great cities of antiquity were always 
so situated that they could obtain a plenty of cheap 
food. Rome ■ was able to rival the populousness of 



THE GROWTH OF MODERN CITIES. 35 

modern capitals because she had peculiar advantages 
for feeding the multitude. She was rich. The treas- 
ures of the whole earth flowed into her lap. She could 
alford to buy the best from all the markets in the world. 
The great food-producing countries were close at hand, 
clustered about the Mediterranean, in the midst of 
which she sat, accessible on every side by land and sea. 
Bread was cheap in Rome : sometimes, even, it was 
free to the poor. Nor was the vastness of the popula- 
tion which she found it possible to sustain, less due 
to the fact that she was able to make life supportable 
and even healthful within her walls. The system of 
aqueducts, sewers, and public baths, by which she 
secured to her citizens good sanitary conditions, have 
never since been approached in magnificence, costli- 
ness, and efficiency.* 

The following may, therefore, be laid down as the 
law of the growth of cities. The urban population in 
every country is always as large as its circumstances 
allow. When a city's increase is not checked by the 
superior attractiveness of some rival, it will grow until 
it reaches a point where life within its walls becomes 
so difficult because of extreme costliness or unwhole- 
someness, or both, that it is no longer to be preferred 
to life without. 

If we now turn our attention toward London again, 
and follow its lines back into the past, we shall see 
abundant evidence that at every step of its history the 
population has been as great as could be sustained 

* Kome still enjoys from ancient aqueducts the most abundant 
water supply of any great city in the world. Until within a few 
years the saying was literally true that one could not go away from 
the sound of running water in Eome. 



36 THE GROWTH OF MODERN CITIES. 

under existing circumstances, with a continual tendency 
to overstep the limits of possible crowding, a trans- 
gression followed by great misery, hunger, and disease, 
which at frequent intervals broke out into violent forms 
of plague and famine. 

Famines used to be among the regular features of 
London life in the olden time. They were often ac- 
companied by a degree of distress for which we, in 
our day, have no parallel. We read, for example, of a 
great famine brought on by a wet season in the year 
1257, when 20,000 people starved to death in London. 
Only thirteen years later there came another still more 
dreadful dearth. "Wheat sold at six pounds eight 
shillings the quarter (which is more than sixty pounds 
at present). And the famine was so horrible that 
parents are reported to have eaten their own children."* 
The reasons for the latter dearth are thus explained : 
"By excessive rains, the banks of the Thames over- 
flowed and broke down in many places, by which acci- 
dent immense injury was done to houses, lands, and 
fruits of the earth." It is, at first sight> incredible that 
a mere wet season should ever have occasioned the 
starvation of every seventh man in London, or that a 
freshet of the Thames should have driven the famish- 
ing poor in the frenzy of hunger to the point of devour- 
ing their own offspring. Yet it must be remembered 
that in those days London had almost no food except 
what grew in the fields immediately about her. When 
these failed to yield their harvest, starvation was at 
hand. Four hundred years later it was still true that 
the hay, straw, peas, beans, and oats used in London 

* Noorthouck's History of London, pp. 50 and 56. London, 1773. 



THE GROWTH OF MODERN CITIES. 37 

•were principally raised within a circuit of twenty miles 
cf the metropolis. The extreme ciimculty of bringing 
food from the interior, will be seen at once when it is 
remembered that everything had to be carried on pack- 
horses oyer roads so narrow that two could not go 
abreast on one of them, and incredibly rough and 
difficult.* A curious light is thrown upon the condi- 
tion of the old English roads by the recorded fact 
that during the civil war eight hundred horses were 
captured while sticking in the mud. Only a century 
ago, the cost of freight between London and Birming- 
ham was £5 per ton, haying fallen less than £2 per ton 
in a hundred years. At the same time, the rate between 
London and Leeds was £13 per ton.-j* 

The history of the great city on the Thames records a 
long series of efrcris, dating back to the earliest time, 
aimed at making bread cheap by legislation. We read, 
for example, that in the year 1314 provisions of all 
sorts were so excessively dear that Parliament imposed 
a regular price apon every variety of flesh and fowl. But 
instead of relieving the cBmculties of the citizens, this 
measure increased, their distress ; for its immediate 
effect was to cut off the supply of provisions altogether, 
so that it was shortly afterward repealed. " Indeed," 
says the historian, " although it is often wished for in 
our time, it does not appear possible to limit the price 
of provisions by any law or magistracy without doing 
more harm than good." % It is instructive to notice the 
extreme fluctuation in the cost of provisions in Lon- 

* See Smiles' Lives of the Engineers, vol. L, p. 177. London, 1861. 
t Affi&forycf Ireland Navigation, p. 73. London, 1769. 
% Nosrthouck, p. 63. 



38 THE GROWTH OF MODERN CITIES. 

don. The price of wheat would frequently be twice 
as great one winter as the next. In times of famine it 
would rise to incredible figures. All this meant a hard 
and doubtful fight for life on the part of the humbler 
class of citizens. 

But the sufferings of London from pestilence have 
been even greater than those from famine. It took her 
centuries to learn the simplest laws of health. Her 
water supply used to be drawn from wells in the city, 
which were, of course, defiled by impurities ; and even 
when she introduced water- works, the water was pumped 
up from the river by tide-wheels at London Bridge, 
where it was anything but pure. There was no sewer- 
age worthy of the name ; the streets were not paved 
until the seventeenth century, and filth was allowed to 
accumulate in them until, in many portions, they were 
higher than the ground floor of the houses, from whose 
lower rooms the drippings of the roadway were with 
difficulty excluded.* Under such circumstances, it is 
no wonder that the death-rate was always fearfully 
heavy, and that epidemics of disease frequently pre- 
vailed. 

Small-pox was an inveterate enemy of the London 
folk. It used to destroy, upon an average, one life out 
of every seven. f There was also a dreadful sweating 
sickness, as it was called, which visited London repeat- 



* Erasmus gives a shocking- picture of the ordinary artisan's habi- 
tation in his time. "They were filthy beyond description. The 
floors were of loam strewed with rushes, which were constantly put 
on fresh without the removal of the old, and intermixed with bones, 
broken victuals, and dirt." Quoted by Loftie, History of London, 
vol. i., p. 354. London, 1883. 

t Noorthouck, p. 136, note. 



THE GROWTH OF MODERN CITIES. 39 

edly in the sixteenth century and destroyed thousands 
of people. But the worst of all was that loathsome 
and terrible disease called " the plague," which every 
fey/ years stole upon the unfortunate city like some 
savage monster creeping up out of the deep, and 
snatched away thousands of her children. In the 
seventeenth century London alone was afflicted by no 
less than four visitations of this dread pestilence.* On 
the first occasion, six thousand citizens perished ; on 
the second, above thirty-five thousand victims were 
swept away. There were eight deaths to one birth in 
London that year. Only eleven years later ten thou- 
sand more were carried off by some foe, and, in the 
memorable year 1665, the great plague, like the horror 
of a great darkness, settled down upon London and 
smote the people until her crowded homes were empty, 
her bustling streets and busy marts desolate, and the 
number of the living seemed less than they that were 
dead. "Most terrible stories of premature burial were 
circulated. All business was suspended ; grass grew 
in the streets ; no one went about; the rumbling wheels 
of the cart and the cry, ' Bring out your dead,' alone 
broke the stillness of the night. "f Although one-third 
of the people with the king and court fied from the 
doomed city, the deaths increased daily until they 
reached the rate of fifteen hundred a day. Bills of 
mortality recorded as many as 68,596 deaths from the 
plague that year, but in the terror and confusion of the 
darkest days no complete record could be kept, and 
historians agree that these figures represent only a 
fraction of the multitude swept away in the carnival of 

* See Loftie, vol. i., p. 353. f Loftie, vol. i., p. 357. 



40 TEE GROWTH OF MODERN CITIES. 

death. In the following year came the great fire of 
London, in whose fierce and fearful flames the town 
was so purified that it suffered no more from the 
plague during that century. 

So great was the hindrance to the city's growth 
caused by want and disease breaking out from time to 
time in these violent forms, that up to the beginning 
of the present century, it does not seem to have in- 
creased, on the average, more than fifty per cent, each 
century, or, at the exceedingly slow rate of one-half of 
one per cent, a year. Yet even that rate appeared too 
rapid. Queen Elizabeth issued two proclamations in 
which the inhabitants of London were forbidden to 
erect new buildings where none had existed before 
within the memory of man. It was said that extension 
of the metropolis would encourage the increase of the 
plague ; would create trouble in governing such multi- 
tudes ; would cause a dearth of victuals, a multiplying 
of beggars and inability to relieve them, and an in- 
crease of artisans more than could live together. 

The decree further stated that lack of air and room 
to walk or shoot arose out of too crowded a city. 
James I. issued several proclamations to the same in- 
tent. " We do well perceive," says he, " in Our Princely 
wisdom and prudence, now that Our Citie of London 
is become the greatest, or next the greatest Citie of the 
Christian World, it is more than time that there bee an 
utter cessation of further rfew Building." One among 
the stained and yellow documents which bear this 
monarch's name is of special interest in this connection. 
It is that in which " On account of the present scarcity 
and dearth, and of the high prices of corn and grain," 
he commands all lords (spiritual and temporal), knights, 



THE GROWTH OF MODERN CITIES. 41 

and gentlemen of quality who are staying in or near 
the city of London to return at once to their country 
seats. He also commands the magistrates to compel 
all farmers to bring forth what grain they have in store 
and to sell the same at reasonable prices. Charles I., 
by repeated proclamations, forbade any building of any 
sort whatever on new foundations within three miles 
of any of the gates of London or of the palace at "West- 
minster. He also prohibited the subdivision of any 
building into tenements, more than at present or for 
thirty years past, and the receiving of more families 
than one into a single tenement. A similar proclama- 
tion was issued to prevent new building and overcrowd- 
ing in Edinburgh. Cromwell issued proclamations to 
the same intent ; and, after the restoration, we find 
Charles II. repeating, in similar terms, the prohibition 
of his father and grandfather and. giving the same 
reasons therefor.* 

Thus it appears that the London of the past has been 
quite as monstrous, quite as unmanageable, quite as 
full of the poor, the sickly, and the starving, as the 
London of the present, and when her actual population 
was not one-tenth of what it is, she was overcrowded 
even more than now. Had we time to examine the 
history of the people of Paris, Vienna, or Edinburgh, 
or any other of the older important cities of Europe, we 
should see the same thing. Until recent times, their 
increase has been continually checked and prevented 
by the battle with hunger and the ravages of disease as 
well as by arbitrary enactments. 



* These proclamations are still preserved in tlie Library of the 
British Museum. 



42 TEE OROWTE OF MODERN CITIES. 

During the latter part of the eighteenth century, a 
new day in the world's history began to dawn, — the era 
of what has been termed "modern civilization." It 
was then that men first commenced in any considerable 
degree to reinforce themselves by "borrowing the 
might of the elements." The steam-engine had been 
partially invented for a century or more, but had been 
used only for pumping and as a scientific toy. James 
Watt made it of practical value and set it to work. In 
1788 it was for the first time successfully harnessed to 
the wheels of a mill.* Close upon this, f oho wed that 
long series of mechanical inventions which have made 
steam power serviceable in such an infinite variety of 
ways, revolutionizing the whole system of human in- 
dustry. In the discovery of the steam-engine, the ■ 
mother of machines, may be found the central reason 
for the growth of our nineteenth-century cities. 

This resulted, in the first place, from the increment 
that the steam-engine brought to the world's wealth. 
Work is the source of wealth. All work had hitherto 
been done and all wealth won by tedious process of 
manual labor; but here was a contrivance for convert- 
ing heat into work. There was heat enough to be had; 
stored up in latent form, the bowels of the earth were 
black with it. The great invention, therefore, changing 
in magical fashion the cheap and grimy product of the 
mines into work and into wealth, was like a veritable 
philosopher's stone dropped down into the midst of the 
nations. What the fathers had gained slowly with 
hard toil and sweat of the face, the sons gained swiftly 

* Albion Mill in London. See Smiles' Lives of Vie Engineers, vol. ii. 



THE GROWTH OF MODERN CITIES. 43 

by the aid of steam, fierce furnaces bearing the heat, 
and sinews of steel, the burden of the day. 

It is difficult to realize how rapidly the world has 
been growing rich during the present century. Mr. 
Gladstone estimates that the amount of wealth which 
could be handed down to posterity, produced during 
the first eighteen hundred years of the Christian era, 
was equalled by the production of the first fifty years 
of this century, and that an equal amount was produced 
in the twenty-five years from 1850 to 1875.* No doubt 
as much more has been produced since 1875, if, as he 
further estimates, the manufacturing power of the 
world is doubled by the aid of machinery every seven 
years. Mr. Mulhall, by carefully arranged statistics, 
has not only shown that the Queen's subjects are worth 
on the average some $335 apiece more than they were 
thirty years ago, and, excluding Ireland, nearly twice 
as much as they were in Queen Anne's time, due allow- 
ance being made for the difference in the purchasing 
power of money, — but he has also exhibited the fact, 
that as England's wealth has increased, its distribution 
among the people has become more general.^ As for 
our own country, the last census informs us that be- 
tween 1860 and 1880, the wealth of the United States 
increased three times as fast as its population, notwith- 
standing the waste of the war and the extinguishment 
of vast property by the liberation of the slaves. 

The immediate result of such increase of wealth has 
been an extremely rapid growth of the world's £opula- 



* Quoted iD Our Country, p. 115. 

f Paper on The Increase of the National Wealth since the Time of 
the Stuarts, read at tbe British Association, September 24, 1883. 



44 THE GROWTH OF MODERN CITIES. 

tion. Within a lifetime, the inhabitants of the civilized 
world have doubled in number, and the number of 
those who speak the English language has quadrupled. 

After the Norman Conquest it took England six hun- 
dred years to add three millions to her population. She 
has done more than that within the last ten years. That 
this great and sudden growth has been caused by the 
general increase of the world's wealth may be seen 
from the fact that it is due, not so much to an increase 
of the birth-rate, as to a decrease of the death-rate 
among civilised peoples. The average span of a human 
life in England, Germany, and France is now six years 
longer than it was when Victoria ascended the throne, 
and is still increasing.* Men are healthier and live 
longer, because they are able to afford more and better 
food; more and better clothing; better homes, and 
superior sanitary and domestic arrangements. 

A secondary result of the increase in the world's 
wealth has been an increase in the size of the cities. 
The greater supply of wealth means not only more 
people, but more rich people ; people, a greater propor- 
tion of whom can afford to pay the high rents, and buy 
the costly provisions of the towns. The increase of 
wealth caused by machinery thus builds up cities in 
two ways at once : it increases the whole number of in- 
habitants in the land, and, at the same time, the pro- 
portion of those inhabitants who can afford a town 
residence. 

Increased wealth has increased the safety and salu- 
briousness of the cities, thus making them more desir- 
able places of residence. Drains, sewers, water-works, 

* Michael G. Mulhall, Progress of the World, p. 6. London, 1880. 



THE GROWTH OF MODERN CITIES. 45 

street-cleaning and other sanitary arrangements, have 
worked wonders in our towns during the last few dec- 
ades. The death-rate is continually falling. The plague 
of the middle ages is known no more; even the cholera, 
which was so destructive twenty and thirty years ago, 
does not easily get a foothold of late. But all these 
sanitary arrangements are exceedingly costly, and are 
only possible where there is great wealth. 

The charities which the wealth of modern times sus- 
tains have also an important social influence. Nature 
provides for the disadvantages that the poor suffer in 
comparison with the well-to-do, in the struggle for ex- 
istence, in her wonted way, viz. : by giving to the poor 
a larger number of children in view of the probability 
that a greater proportion of those children will succumb 
to disease and privation before reaching maturity;* 
but as a city grows in wealth, and its donations for 
charitable purposes increase, increasing numbers of 
those who would otherwise perish in early life are 
rescued from the clutches of want and sickness. The 
free hospitals, infirmaries, homes for destitute children, 
etc., with their superior medical service, care and nurs- 
ing must have vast influence in diminishing the power 
of poverty and disease to check the natural increase of 
population. It is estimated that £4,000,G00 is given 
away in London every year, the greater part of which 
is expended for benevolent purposes within its limits, 
and that the charitable work of the hospitals alone in- 
volves an annua] expenditure of above £500,000. Such 

* Between 1870 and 1880 the birth-rate in the prosperous district 
of Hampstead, London, was twenty-four per thousand annually, 
whereas, in the miserable district of White Chapel it was thirty-six 
per thousand, or fifty per cent, greater. 



46 THE GBOWTH OF MODERN CITIES. 

institutions unquestionably save multitudes of lives, and 
their work goes far toward explaining the fact that 
eighty-one per cent, of the annual increase of that city 
is due to the excess of its birth-rate over its death-rate, 
while the influx from the rural districts, from other 
towns and from foreign lands, altogether amounts to 
less than nineteen per cent, of the whole increase. 

By another most important agency has the steam- 
engine promoted the growth of cities: that is the rail- 
road. The country lad no longer comes trudging into 
town dusty and footsore, with a bundle on his back, 
a few shillings in his pocket, and the alternative be- 
fore him of finding a place or starving. The farmer's 
boy who goes into the city seeking a situation at present 
runs no risk. If he fails to find it, he can easily take 
the next train for home, and try again some other day. 
Thus the iron roacl enables the town to make its at- 
tractiveness far more widely felt than formerly. It also 
greatly increases the convenience of getting about from 
suburb to centre, and from one part of town to another. 
Men can live at greater distances from their business, 
and the cities can hold more inhabitants with less 
crowding. But the greatest service that the railways 
render to the cities is that of facilitating the arrange- 
ments by which they are fed. Two hundred years ago, 
London, like a frugal household of the olden time, used 
to lay up a supply of food in autumn sufficient for the 
whole winter's needs, the greater part of which came 
from the immediate neighborhood. Now it is said that 
she never has more than a week's supply on hand, and 
that a fortnight's siege would bring her to starvation. 
Then, the cost of food was great and irregular, the sup- 
ply uncertain, periods of dearth frequent, and famines 



THE GROWTH OF MODERN CITIES. 47 

occasional. Now, the price of provisions is uniform, is 
much less than then, the supply is regular, and famine 
impossible. Forty years ago, Mr. Porter, the best 
economist in England, said: " Great Britain can never 
obtain the bulk of her food supply from abroad, as all 
the shipping in the world, say 6,600,000 tons, would be 
insufficient to carry food for her population." To-day, 
Great Britain imports more than half her food, and 
employs in doing so ships whose tonnage exceeds that 
of the world's shipping when Mr. Porter wrote.* Forty 
years ago the price of grain in Western Prussia was 
double that which ruled in Eastern Prussia. Forty 
years ago the cost of wheat was 150 per cent, higher, in 
England than in Hungary; the present difference in 
price is only 23 per cent. In half a century the price 
of wheat has fallen thirty-five per cent, in England, 
and the consumption has risen, per inhabitant, thirty- 
two per cent.f The significance of such changes will 
be seen when it is remembered that the death-rate, as 
shown by Doctor Farr, of the Statistical Society, rises 
and falls in England with the price of bread. In the 
opinion of experts, railroads have also operated very 
powerfully in favor of the great towns at the expense 
of the small ones, especially in the United States, by 
the discrimination in freight rates against the latter. 
The charges for shipping goods from a little town have 
frequently been twice as great as from a city, where 
two or more lines compete for the traffic. This, of 
course, makes it difficult for manufacturers and traders 
to locate in a small community. 

*Mulhall, pp. 133 and 134. 

t Andrew Carnegie states that one dollar -will ship as much freight 
across the Atlantic to-day as thirty-five dollars twenty years ago. 



48 THE GROWTH OF MODERN CITIES. 

The steani-engine and the wealth produced by it and 
by machinery have contributed to the growth of cities 
in another way : they have increased the demand for 
such products as come from the towns, and have, there- 
fore, multiplied the opportunities of earning a liveli- 
hood within them. There is a principle well known to 
economists called " Engel's Law," the essence of which 
is this : As the income increases, the relative percent- 
age of outlay for food, the great product of the coun- 
try, diminishes, while the relative percentage of outlay 
for sundries, — that is, the various manufactured articles 
or products of the town, — becomes greater. As men grow 
richer, a larger part of their wants must be supplied by 
labor in the factories, and a smaller proportion by labor 
in the fields; therefore, the richer the world, the greater 
will naturally be the proportion of its people who work 
within brick walls and walk on crowded pavements. 

Again; under the new conditions consequent upon 
the introduction of the steam-engine the volume of the 
world's trade has marvelously increased. "With vastly 
more wealth to be expended and invested than formerly, 
with an infinite quantity and variety of articles to be 
bought and sold, many of which had never been heard 
of fifty years ago, with rapid transit and cheap freight 
so that the remotest parts can send their products to 
market for exchange, with multitudes of new facilities 
for the conduct of trade, better methods of banking, 
telegraphic communication, mails, expresses, etc., the 
nineteenth century has witnessed a revolution of com- 
merce second only to that of manufacture, and one that 
has been almost equally powerful in its tendency to 
build up the cities. The city has always been the home 
of trade, the place of shops and shoppers, of markets and 



THE GROWTH OF MODERN CITIES. 49 

merchandise, so that under any circumstances the 
growth of a nation's trade would involve a correspond- 
ing increase of its towns ; but this has been peculiarly 
the case in recent years, because the growth of trade 
has been accompanied by constant improvements in the 
facilities for intercommunication. The city -shops serve 
a wider circle of country customers every day. You 
can live in Texas in these times and do your shopping 
in New York. 

There is still another cause for the enormous develop- 
ment of the cities which is of great importance, namely : 
the change in methods of agricultural work. This 
reason is not so immediately connected with the steam- 
engine, although it is the outcome of that series of in- 
ventions to which the discovery of the steam-engine 
gave the first impulse. With each successive year, a 
smaller and smaller proportion of the world's workers 
are required to produce the world's food. What ten 
men used to do with difficulty, one man now does with 
ease through the aid of machinery. "It is a fact, esti- 
mated by careful men thoroughly conversant with the 
changes that have taken place, that by the improvement 
made in agricultural tools the average farmer can, with 
sufficient horse-power, do with three men the work of 
fourteen men forty years ago, and do it better." * This 
fact has a twofold influence in increasing the urban 
population: it pulls and it pushes at once; it expels men 
from the country, it attracts them to the towns. 

A farmer buys such improved machines as enable 
him to dispense with the services, say, of Wo laborers. 



* Report of Special Agent on Agricultural Implements, Tenth Cen- 
sus U. #., vol. ii., p. 700. 

4 



50 THE GROWTH OF MODERN CITIES. 

His farm yields as large crops as ever, but two farm- 
hands less are required to do the work These two 
men, being thrust out of employment by the machine, 
are compelled to seek it elsewhere; and by this number 
with their families, the region of the farm is depop- 
ulated. Meanwhile, the amount which the farmer 
formerly expended for the wages of the dismissed 
laborers is added to his income, but he does not keep 
much of this money. A part of it goes in payment for 
the new machines, and a part of it for the purchase of 
such luxuries as could not be afforded before, — better 
clothing, furniture, books, etc., — all of which come from 
the cities, and consequently involve additional labor for 
city manufacturers and traders. Thus while the result 
of the new machine is to diminish the demand for la- 
bor in the country, it increases the demand for labor in 
town; and the men thrown out of work on the farm, 
will naturally find it in shop or factory. The propor- 
tion of laborers in the United States who are en- 
gaged in agriculture as compared with the proportion 
of laborers engaged in manufacture and other occu- 
pations shows a remarkable diminution between 1870 
and 1880.* Says Mr. Alfred Simmons, Secretary of the 
Kent and Sussex Laborer's Union: "lam personally 
acquainted with many parishes, the land on which for- 
merly provided regular employment for from two hun- 
dred to three hundred laborers, but on which there are 
now employed not one-half the original number, and 
many of those so employed only casually engaged. In 
every department of agriculture, the machine has taken 
the best paid for agricultural work from the laborer, "f 

* Tenth Census U. &, vol. L, p. 703. 

t Pamphlet entitled State Emigration ; a reply to Lord Derby. Pub- 



THE GROWTH OF MODERN CITIES. 51 

" One farmer, like Dr. Glyn, of California, or Mr. Dal- 
rymple, of Dakota, with a field of wheat covering a 
hundred square miles, can raise as much grain with four 
hundred farm servants as five thousand peasant proprie- 
tors in France." * 

" The plowshare may be silver, but the spade is gold," 
say the Italians. Modern agriculturists have proved 
the saying false. Not only do the machines do more 
work than the hand-tools, but they do it better. In the 
days of Queen Anne, the wheat-fields of England used 
to yield fifteen bushels to the acre. The little peasant 
farms of France and Germany yield about the same 
amount now.f To-day, with large fields and improved 
agricultural methods, the average yield for the United 
Kingdoms is thirty-six bushels per acre. J 

With each successive year the production of a barrel 
of flour, a bushel of corn or potatoes, or a round of 
beef, requires less labor. 

With each successive year a smaller part of the 
world's ever-increasing army of workers can be em- 
ployed in the ordinary pursuits of agriculture. But 
the law of life, " in the sweat of thy face shalt thou 
eat bread," has lost none of the rigor of its enforce- 
ment. Men toil as long and hard for daily bread in 

lished by the National Society for Promoting State-directed Emigra- 
tion and Colonization. 

* See Mulhall's Progress of the World, pp. 23 and 24. 

+ Lady Verney, "Foreign Opinions on Peasant Properties." Nine- 
teenth Century, Nov., 1885, p. 796. 

% In France and Germany, where the old methods of hand-labor 
largely prevail, each male person employed produces on an average, 
respectively, only 220 and 245 bushels of wheat each year. In Eng- 
land, where the modern methods prevail, the average product of 
every person is 540 bushels. In the United States it is &20 bushels. 



52 THE GROWTH OF MODERN CITIES. 

this year of grace as they did before mowing, reaping, 
and threshing-machines appeared ; but the bulk of the 
work has been changed from field to factory and the 
majority of the workers have followed it. 

Such reasons as these afford abundant explanation 
for the phenomenal increase of urban populations in 
modem times. Civilization has promoted the growth 
of the great towns by augmenting their natural attract- 
iveness, the facilities for reaching them and the oppor- 
tunities of earning a livelihood with them, and., at the 
same time, by decreasing the obstacles and broadening 
the natural limits to their growth. It has brought to 
them an unlimited supply of cheap food, greater wealth 
to meet the costliness of city residence, and to over- 
come by proper sanitary arrangements the unhealthful- 
ness of their crowded life. And, finally, it has been 
continually changing the balance of the demand for 
work and workers, from the country to the town. 

So long as such causes as these prevail, the cities of 
Christendom will continue rolling themselves up to ever 
vaster size ; but these causes as yet show no diminution 
in their influence ; nor, so far as one may judge, are 
they likely to do so for generations to come.* The 
present may be the age of great cities, but the future 
is the age of greater. This must especially be the case 
with the United States. The youngest of the nations 
has already more large cities than any except Great 
Britain and Germany. Though still in their infancy, 

* If it could be shown that poverty and crime were increasing 
more rapidly than population in the larger cities, there would be an 
indication that they were approaching the limit of possible growth 
under the present conditions of civilization. As a matter of fact, 
however, official returns for England, Scotland, and Germany show 
an opposite tendency. 



THE GROWTH OF MODERN CITIES. 53 

our principal towns surpass in size and in the tumult 
of their life, many of the older and nourishing capitals 
of Europe. "With the country growing in population 
at a rate unprecedented in the annals of all times and 
the towns growing twice as fast; with what seems 
a certainty of having as many inhabitants within one 
hundred years as all Europe has at present; with every 
probability that the people of the twentieth century 
will centralize themselves even more than those of the 
nineteenth, the United States may fairly expect to pos- 
sess cities whose greatness cannot be equalled by any- 
thing that the world has yet seen. 

All efforts to arrest the progress of the cities and to 
check the population that continually flows into them, 
must be fruitless. The great social movements of the 
age cannot be stopped. Each successive year is certain 
to see a smaller place for the workers of the world in 
the fields and on the farms and a larger place in shops, 
counting-rooms, offices, banks, manufactories, and the 
myriad industries that make their home in the metrop- 
olis. Let it not be assumed that great cities are of 
necessity, what Thomas Jefferson called them : " Great 
sores upon the body ploitic." Nothing is evil that is in 
the best sense natural, and the formation of great cities is 
a normal result of a high development of human society. 
They are found among the purest and most advanced 
of nations ; they come in the most enlightened times ; 
the evil of them is not in their size, but in the avarice, 
luxury, oppression, and vice that haunt them. 

The wisest efforts of philanthropy will not be spent 
in the vain effort to prevent the incoming of men to 
them, but in the effort to make them better places for 
human habitation; not in checking their growth, but 
in quenching their iniquity. 



CHAPTEE n. 

THE SOCIAL COMPOSITION OF AMERICAN CITIES. 

Few thoughtful men can look attentively upon the 
tumultuous life of a great town, traverse the monot- 
onous miles of its extensive suburbs, or mingle in the 
human tides that flow forever up and down its thor- 
oughfares, without the repeated question: Who are all 
these people ? whence came they ? how do they live ? 

The inhabitants of cities may be classified by their 
occupation. Most men have something to do; notwith- 
standing a prevailing impression to the contrary, the 
census returns show that the number of able-bodied 
male adults who have no regular profession, occupa- 
tion, or calling, is exceedingly small. In all England and 
"Wales it amounts to but 186,000, and in our own land 
it must be much less, seeing that we have no profes- 
sional gentry. 

Cities have three kinds of work : production, distri- 
bution, service. There are, therefore, three sorts of 
workers: those employed in making goods, those em- 
ployed in selling and distributing goods, and those who 
tender to others their professional or personal services.* 

The work of production is the great business of 
cities, a business which employs more workers than 
either distribution or service, and often more than both 

* The data for the following discussion are found in the Tenth 
Census of the United States, vol. i., pp. 700-900. 
(54) 



SOCIAL COMPOSITION OF AMERICAN CITIES. 55 

combined. This is especially true in the United States. 
We have risen, within the past twenty years, to the 
first place among the manufacturing nations of the 
world and manufacture has been the life of our towns. 
Our trade, vast as its volume is, has done less to swell 
the cities than the manufactures that centre in them. 
"I conceive," says Francis A. Walker, "that no one 
will hesitate to assent to the proposition that the growth 
of the cities of the United States since 1850, has been 
due in far greater measure to their development as 
manufacturing centres than to their increased business 
as centres for the distribution of commercial products." * 
Even in the great trade cities, such as New York, 
Boston, anel Chicago, there are more persons engaged 
in making goods than in selling them f In the fifty 
chief cities the ratio of producers to distributors is that 
of 13 to 7, a very great proportion, then, — and often 
the majority of those who people the long lines of 
houses, who throng the streets, who consume the stores 
of provisions, who make the money and spend the 
money, who swell the census tables, and, in a word, 
constitute the population of the ordinary American 
city, get their living by some sort of manufacture or 
mechanical work. 

A few of those thus employed are manufacturers and 
officials and clerks of manufacturing companies ; a few 
are master mechanics, contractors, and other employers 
of labor; but at least nine-tenths are artisans. These 
artisans are nearly all dependent for work and for 



* Kemarks on the Statistics of Manufacture. Tenth Census of the 
United States, vol. ii., pp. xv. and xvi. 
t Kansas City is the only exception noticed. 



56 SOCIAL COMPOSITION OF AMERICAN CITIES. 

wages upon employers and belong to what is called 
"the working-class." The independent mechanic who 
works by himself at his home or in a small shop with 
one or two apprentices as assistants, is rarely to be found 
in our modern towns. " Of the nearly 3,000,000 people 
employed in the mechanical industries in this country," 
says Mr. Carroll T>. Wright, the best of authorities, " at 
least four-fifths are working under the factory system." * 
Among the rest, most of whom, from the nature of their 
occupation, cannot be working in factories, such as 
carpenters, plumbers, painters, paper-hangers, and 
masons, the majority are working for day wages under 
the employ of large builders and contractors. 

In production of every sort, two tendencies are note- 
worthy. The first is, the incessant substitution of un- 
skilled labor for skilled through the aid of machinery. 
So ingenious are the contrivances of modem mechanics 
that children and untaught persons take the places and 
do the work of those who have learned their craft by 
long apprenticeship. The quantity of brain- work requi- 
site in the ordinary mechanic is daily diminishing; so 
is the quantity of sheer physical strength. Mere deft- 
ness of hand or nimbleness of fingers is the only quality 
now necessary for the production of many an article 
which once cost skill and patience of the highest qual- 
ity, as well as muscle. This means that the common 
artisan of the machinery age takes less and less thought- 
ful interest in his work and requires less and less intel- 
ligence and strength as improvements in machines and 
engines continue. 



* Special report on "Factories and the Factory System." Tenth 
Census of the United States, vol. ii., p. 548. 



SOCIAL COMPOSITION OF AMEBICAN CITIES. 57 

Another notable tendency of modern industry is 
toward the concentration of manufacture in large estab- 
lishments. A large concern has every advantage over a 
small one: more capital, more independence, better 
machines, less waste, better facilities for buying and 
selling. The two cannot compete on equal terms. The 
small establishments must either devote themselves to 
some specialty where they have the field to themselves, 
must consolidate, or must entirely break up. In Massa- 
chusetts, for example, the annual industrial products 
are three and one-half times greater than they were 
thirty-five years ago, and those employed in their pro- 
duction twice as many; yet the number of manufacturing 
establishments has increased only sixty-eight per cent, 
since 1850. This means larger establishments and less 
of them, fewer employers and more employes; this means 
that with every year more men are working for wages 
and less men are engaged in enterprises of their own. 
So long as industrial tendencies continue as they are, fac- 
tory-people and wage-working artisans, in whose work 
there is so little to stimulate either intellectual or physical 
development, must compose a large and a somewhat in- 
creasing proportion of the inhabitants of all cities. 

The second great branch of industry is that of distri- 
bution. Under this head are included all bankers, brok- 
ers, insurance agents, merchants, and dealers of every 
sort, as well as the army of salesmen, clerks, accountants, 
packers, and porters employed by them; and, at the same 
time, all those connected with railways, street-cars, ex- 
press lines, cabs, drays, freight and shipping offices. 

Though not so numerous as those engaged in manu- 
facture and mechanical industries, this class composes 
a large and very important portion of urban society. 



58 SOCIAL COMPOSITION OF AMERICAN CITIES. 

To it belongs the great bulk of the wealth, and a large 
share of the power and influence. Merchant princes 
and railroad kings may be few, but merchants of inde- 
pendent position and comfortable income are numerous; 
and still more numerous are the small dealers and the 
clerks, agents, and salesmen of various sorts who live 
on respectable salaries. These are the people that 
swell the ranks of what in England are called the 
" middle classes," that crowd the shops and fill the bet- 
ter streets, that attend the churches, concerts, and re- 
spectable theatres. They are, withal, so much the most 
conspicuous part of the city's pojDulation that they ap- 
pear to constitute a larger portion of the whole than 
they do in reality. Yet the number of worMngmen 
employed in distribution, especially in connection with 
railroads and transportation, is at the same time very 
considerable, so that in this branch of industry as well 
as that of production, a greater part of those engaged 
are in humble circumstances. 

The third class of occupations comprises all that 
make it their business to contribute any kind of pro- 
fessional or personal service to other men. A very wide 
range of employments is included under this head. 
Commencing with the so-called " professional classes," — 
lawyers, clergymen, physicians, journalists, teachers, 
and Government officers — the list is extended through 
hotel-keepers, keepers of stables, laundries, barber- 
shops, and boarding-houses, and finally, includes do- 
mestic servants and simple unspecified day-laborers. 
This class, if not so numerous as either of the other 
two, is by no means a small one.* It is made up for 

* In order to make a fair comparison, one must compare the males 
of each class. 



SOCIAL COMPOSITION OF AMERICAN CITIES. 59 

the most part, though, perhaps not so largely as the 
manufacturers, of those who work with the hands for 
daily wages. Some who hold the highest and most in- 
fluential positions are, indeed, included here, but such 
persons compose a very slight numerical portion of the 
whole.* 

This hasty glance at the occupations of the people 
makes it evident that in all three branches of industry 
the workers are divided into two classes, according as 
the chief element in their work is that of brain or 
muscle. Workers of the one class are engaged in " bus- 
iness," those of the other in "labor." The rewards of 
the first are " profits," " fees," or " salaries." Those of 
the second are " wages." People of the first class are 
never, except by blustering anarchists, called "idle 
men," but those of the second are generally distin- 
guished by the noble title, " workingmen," a desig- 
nation which, much as we disapprove of it when so 
employed, we cannot well avoid the use of. The in- 
come of the first class is much greater, their style of 
living better, their homes more comfortable, and their 
food more wholesome and abundant ; they have better 
opportunities for the improvement of the mind and the 
culture of the taste, and are, consequently, as a class, 
more thoughtful, intelligent, and better informed. The 
boundary line between workingmen and others is not 
sharply drawn ; some who work for wages are far 



* Under this head, for instance, the census shows that there are 
in New York for 800 journalists, 3,700 barbers ; less than S00 
clergymen, more than 9,000 lauuderers and laundresses; 2,600 phy- 
sicians and surgeons, more than 12,000 hotel and restaurant em- 
ployes ; 3,000 lawyers, 35,000 laborers ; less than 5,000 teachers, 
more than 55,000 domestic servants. 



60 SOCIAL COMPOSITION OF AMEBICAN CITIES. 

superior in intelligence and social standing to the aver- 
age of those who work for salaries. Nevertheless, the 
term " workingman " conveys a distinct notion of that 
great portion of society that bears the physical burdens 
and performs the bone-and-muscle labor, that carries 
the heaviest loads and receives the smallest rewards. 

It is also evident that the great bulk of the popu- 
lation in ordinary cities must be composed of the 
working-class, since they comprise not less than four- 
fifths of those engaged in productive industries, one- 
third of those engaged in distribution and three-fourths 
of those engaged in service. The proportion of work- 
ingmen to others in a given town, would, of course, 
depend greatly upon the character of its leading in- 
dustries. You would expect to find a much larger per- 
centage of wage- workers in a city of great mills, like 
Paterson, N. J., or Lowell, Mass., than in a city of trade 
like Kansas City, Mo., or of State institutions, like 
Columbus, Ohio. The ratio of workingmen to the whole 
population has been variously estimated. Some think 
that only about one-third of the people in ordinary 
j cities belong to that class. Others have estimated the 
proportion to be as great as four-fifths. It is my own 
impression that in the larger cities, at least, working- 
people rarely, if ever, compose less than one-half or 
more than three-fourths of the entire population. A 
fair average for American towns would perhaps be 
sixty per cent.* 

It has always been difficult for well-to-do people of 
the upper and middle classes to sympathize with and 



* See discussion of the subject iu the work of Mr. John Rae, on 
Contemporary Socialism, pp. 348 and 349, London, 1884. 



SOCIAL COMPOSITION OF AMERICAN CITIES. 61 

to understand the needs of their poorer neighbors. It 
has been equally difficult for the workingnien to ap- 
preciate the position of those above them. Each class 
is painfully conscious of the other's faults. Both are 
blind to their own. The changes that modern times 
have brought, do not lessen the difficulty. The devel- 
opment of mechanical invention has cheapened muscle- 
work in comparison with brain-work. The income of 
those engaged in the professions and in commercial 
life has consequently increased much more rapidly than 
that of the wage-workers. The contrast between the 
condition of the two classes i3 every day becoming 
greater and harder for the workingman to bear. Of 
all the vast increase of wealth that the latter-day civil- 
ization has brought, he thinks that his share has been 
pitifully small. He has a feeling that he has been used 
unfairly, has been cheated out of hard earnings — a 
vague impression that the upper ranks of society have 
joined in some conspiracy against him and his toiling 
brotherhood. The city's beautiful homes, splendid 
with costly furniture ; the prancing horses and spark- 
ling carriages ; the silks and seal-skins and the bright 
and dainty dresses of rich children, seem to him to 
have been niched from his own poor fireside and from 
his shabby little ones. It is hard to approach a man 
when he has a feeling that you and your class have 
wronged him. 

Civilization, in its onward march, has broadened the 
breach between rich and poor in another way, and that 
is by removing their homes from one another. The 
price of bread may fall, the price of clothing may fall, 
even the cost of meat may not increase so greatly ; 
wages too may fall, but house-rent, never. Its course 



62 SOCIAL COMPOSITION OF AMEBIC AN CITIES. 

is onward and upward. Mr. J. E. Tliorold Bogers, a 
high authority, makes the statement that the value of 
land in England during the last four centuries has in- 
creased more than a thousand-fold on ground rents.* 
This rapid rise in rent has affected the poor and the 
well-to-do quite differently. The business man of 
moderate income finds the cost of the town house too 
great for him ; but a few miles out from the centre of 
the city is another house, just as comfortable, and in 
some respects more so, which is within his means. So 
he lives outside the town and works within it, con- 
venient trains carrying him to and fro every day. But 
it is not so with the workingman. When city rents 
become high he cannot follow his more fortunate 
neighbor to the suburbs. The expense of the daily 
railway ride would be a severe tax on his slender 
income, for one thing ; experiments in England have 
also shown that the jar of the cars is peculiarly irying 
to those who are wearied by physical toil ; but the 
main reason is that the length of his day's work makes 
it inconvenient to reside far away from his place of 
employment. In winter, a workingman who lives in 
the suburbs, must start for the town long before 
light in the morning and must take breakfast before 
that. He does not return to home and supper until 
long after dark at night. A hot dinner at some public 
house is a luxury that few can afford, and the cold din- 
ner from the lunch-basket is hardly enough to sustain 
one through the long and toilsome hours from the 
hasty meal of early morning until the supper late at 
night. It is, moreover, undoubtedly true that the subtle 

* Contemporary Socialism, Contemporary Beview, Jan., 1885, p. 57. 



SOCIAL COMPOSITION OF AMERICAN CITIES. 63 

attraction of the town's stirring life is peculiarly fas- 
cinating to working-people. Who does not know the 
difficulty of persuading domestic servants to take sit- 
uations even a few miles out from the city? Many 
efforts have been made to induce the working-classes 
to exchange their crowded quarters in the towns for 
the more spacious suburbs ; but they have been usually 
attended with small success, the men preferring to put 
up with great inconvenience rather than move far away 
from their work. If, then, the rent of a house is more 
than one can afford, half a house must content him ; 
or if half a house is too dear, a quarter must suffice ; 
or if a quarter is still beyond his means, it must 
be a sixth or an eighth. Out of 114,759 families 
in Glasgow, 40,820 are living in one room each and 
47,029 in two rooms each ; that is, seventy-eight fam- 
ilies out of every hundred have only one or two rooms 
for their home. Less than one family in ten enjoys so 
many as four rooms.* There are, on the average, six- 
teen souls to every dwelling-house in New York City.f 
It is said that there are only about forty thousand old- 
fashioned "householders," that is, heads of families, 
who occupy a whole house by themselves in New 
York City. Most of the people live in " apartments." 

Thus while the cities, spurred on by the spirit of the 
nineteenth century, grow and wax mightily, extending 
their borders on every side, the various elements of 
their society become with every year more widely 
separated from one another. The rich live beside the 
beautiful parks and along the broad and handsome 

* Census of Scotland, 1881, vol. i., p. 313. 
t Tenth Census IT. S., vol. i., p. 670. 



64 SOCIAL COMPOSITION OF AMERICAN CITIES. 

avenues of " West End," or in some fashionable suburb 
amid velvet lawns and stately trees, from -\vliich they 
are at great pains to exclude omnibus and street-car 
lines, that none may come to live along with them save 
members of the select circle of carriage-keeping folk. 
Such of the middle class as live in town have their 
special quarters — long lines of street where the houses 
are smaller, rents lower, and the atmosphere less fash- 
ionable ; but the more distant suburbs, with a railway 
ride between them and the town, are getting to be the 
characteristic residences of the middle class. All about 
our chief cities, within distances of from five to fifteen 
miles, you will see sprightly little villages springing up, 
the houses new and neat, each in the centre of its 
patch of green, from which ranks of well-dressed men, 
armed with newspapers, go out at a comfortable hour 
in the morning to return at a comfortable hour at 
night. Such places have no troops of laborers march- 
ing forth at daybreak with their dinner-pails, no fac- 
tory-girls, no drinking-saloons, no disorderly people 
about the streets by night, no paupers. All is peaceful 
and quiet and charming. The schools are of the best ; 
the children may attend them safely, they need not 
mingle there with the rough and uncouth offspring of 
the poor. The churches flourish greatly ; every pew is 
rented. 

As for the workingmen and the poor, they are hud- 
dled together in ugly, dingy, ill-built dwellings about 
the docks and factories; they crowd some of the near- 
est suburbs, dreary and disagreeable to pass through, 
and they fill to overflowing the cramped tenements of 
certain unsightly and unsavory regions in some " North 
End " or " East End," where no one ever goes except 



SOCIAL COMPOSITION OF AMERICAN CITIES. 65 

landlords' agents, priests, and police. Between these 
poor districts and those where the richer class reside, 
there frequently lies the business portion of the city, a 
quarter overflowing with life and tumult by day, but 
silent and empty by night. The working-people are 
closely confined by their employment all day long and 
in the evening do not go far from home; so that the 
richer classes, especially in the larger cities, where the 
homes of the two are widely separated, see very little 
of them. It is "out of sight, out of mind." By the 
great majority of the upper class they are forgotten; 
their need and their just claims upon society are never 
thought of; their very existence is ignored until, in the 
shocking, lurid light of some violent strike or bloody 
riot, they are brought suddenly to notice. " Circum- 
stances," says one of the most thoughtful workers 
among the masses of East London (a man who is also 
at home in the richest drawing-rooms of "West End), 
"circumstances are daily giving to rich and poor the 
characteristics of two nations." 

A keen critic of ourselves and our institutions re- 
marks, that " society in America means all the honest, 
kindly-mannered, pleasant-voiced women, and all the 
good, brave, unassuming men, between the Atlantic 
and Pacific. Each of these has a free pass in every 
city and village, good for this generation only, and it 
depends on each to make use of this pass or not as it 
may suit his or her fancy." 

We have reason for profound gratitude that so little 
of the spirit of caste has taken root upon our soil; that 
the best social circles are so accessible to all who de- 
serve their privileges, without distinctions of rank or 
birth, and that even plutocracy does not reign supreme 
5 



66 SOCIAL COMPOSITION OF AMERICAN CITIES. 

■within our borders. Yet to say that there are no social 
classes in the United States, especially in the cities of 
the United States, is to speak wide of the truth. We 
have, indeed, no titled nobility and little aristocracy. 
The distinction between upper and middle classes, 
if there be one at all, is vague and fanciful, and any 
barrier that may be raised between the two is thin, 
frail, and easy to break through. But with the work- 
ing-class, the so-called " lowest class," it is quite other- 
wise. Here are found the same distinctions which 
characterize the cities of England, Scotland, and the 
continent of Europe. They spring from the same 
causes. They are aggravated by the same tendencies. 
They express themselves in the same class-prejudices. 
The workingmen are the first to recognize these dis- 
tinctions, for their terms, " labor " and " capital," incor- 
rectly as they use them, refer to divisions of society, 
the existence of which cannot be denied. A great and 
growing gulf lies between the working-class and those 
above them, — a gulf that is already as broad and deep 
— nay, in some respects, broader, deeper, and more 
difficult of passage in the cities of the United States 
than in those of Europe. Our own working-people are 
even more widely separated from the rest of society 
than those in England, France, and Germany, because 
the differences in occupation and wealth, which are 
becoming nearly as great here as there, are emphasized 
here as they are not there, by still greater differences 
in race, language, and religion. 

This leads to a series of inquiries respecting the birth 
and nationality of our urban population. 

" The world contains only two nations now," says a 
witty American, " those who speak English and those 



SOCIAL COMPOSITION OF AMERICAN CITIES. 67 

who don't." Mr. Mulhall shows that while the whole 
population of the world has doubled within a lifetime, 
the Anglo-Saxon race has quadrupled. The wonderful 
rapidity of this increase has been chiefly due to the 
growth of the United States, and the growth of the 
United States, as we all know, has been greatly accel- 
erated by the flow of large streams from foreign sources 
into the Anglo-Saxon channel of the national life. We 
speak the language of Shakespeare as purely as it is 
spoken anywhere in the world; we claim the peerless 
literature of England as equally our own; we count 
ourselves the children and the heirs of that long succes- 
sion of men and women who, by their mighty words 
and noble deeds, have made her history glorious. 
We hold to all that is best in her free institutions by a 
thousand bonds besides that of the common mother 
tongue; we find ourselves so closely knitted to the folk 
of old England that we can never think of them as 
foreigners. Yet we are not Englishmen or Anglo- 
Saxons, take us as a whole. The blood of many nations 
courses in hot and mingled currents through our veins. 
In Massachusetts the people are more than half of 
foreign birth or children of foreign-born parents. The 
same thing is true of New York and Rhode Island and 
several of the Western States. This mingling of peo- 
ples is the marked and special characteristic of the 
towns. Few of us realize how far from being Anglo- 
Saxon either in race, tradition, or religion are the cities 
of the United States. Those who come from foreign 
lands seem to be peculiarly attracted thither. They 
come as laborers, and the cities with their great indus- 
tries are the labor-markets where they can best ex- 
change for food that physical strength which is their 



68 SOCIAL COMPOSITION OF AMERICAN CITIES. 

only stock in trade. The proportion of foreign-born 
inhabitants is more than twice as great in the cities as 
in the whole country. We have two hundred and 
eighty-six considerable cities. The forty-four largest 
of these contain 34.2 per cent, of our total foreign pop- 
ulation. These forty-four chief cities contain 38.7 per 
cent, of all the Germans in the land, 38.7 per cent, of 
the Bohemians, 45.26 per cent, of the Irish, 52.4 per 
cent, of the Poles, and sixty per cent, of the Italians.* 
If one could add to these amounts the number of 
foreign-born inhabitants in all the other two hundred 
and forty-two cities, we should doubtless find that fully 
three-fourths of our foreign-born citizens are city 
residents. 

Because a man first saw the light in Europe it by no 
means follows that he is a foreigner. Thousands upon 
thousands of truest and most patriotic citizens have 
come hither from beyond the sea; neither does it fol- 
low because one is born on our soil that he is an Ameri- 
can. More than one generation is required, under the 
ordinary conditions of urban life, to make the children 
of Irish and German peasants fit persons for citizen- 
ship in the great republic. Between the fathers who 
have come from the old country and the children born 
and bred in the new, there is always a marked differ- 
ence; but frequently the change does not appear to be 
for the better. It is easy to learn the unfettered inde- 
pendence, the exemption from restraint that character- 
izes our institutions; but to know the law of liberty and 
to accept the responsibility which is wedded to freedom, 
is a more difficult matter. Thus it sometimes happens 

* Tenth Census of the United States, vol. i., p. 470. 



SOCIAL COMPOSITION OF AMERICAN CITIES 69 

that the children of foreigners, being more used to the 
liberties, but quite as ignorant of the duties of citizen- 
ship, give greater perplexity to the preservers of order 
and purity than ever their fathers have done. A just 
and comprehensive view of the proportions of native 
and foreign blood, must therefore take into account not 
only the foreign-born, but also their children of the 
first generation. Regarding this matter, the census 
agents have brought to light as the result of a series of 
elaborate investigations extended to twenty-eight States, 
seven Territories, and the District of Columbia, certain 
facts from which the following general law may be 
gathered : that to every 100 persons of foreign birth, 
there belong, on the average, 115 children, parents and 
children together amounting to 215 ;* that is, in order 
to find out how many foreigners with their children 
reside in a given place, one must multiply the number 
of foreign-born as reported in the census tables, by 
2.15. In this way we are made to realize to how great 
an extent American cities are European in population^ 

* The parts examined with this object in view, contained 26,354,124 
inhabitants, of whom 2,673,217 were found to be of foreign birth, 
while 5,758,811 were of foreign parentage. See Tenth Census V. S., 
vol. i., p. 674. 

+ Thus it appears that out of one hundred persons in 



New York 


80 are 


foreign-born or children of foreign-bora parents, 


Philadelphia 


51 


i< 


it 


(t 


if 


Brooklyn 


67 


« 


Li 


ii 


ff 


Chicago 


87 


it 


u 


if 


ft 


♦Boston 


63 


it 


u 


ii 


ff 


*St. Louis 


78 


it 


u 


ii 


if 


Baltimore 


35 


u 


44 


if 


ff« 


Cincinnati 


60 


ti 


it 


it 


44 


*San Francisco 78 


it 


it 


if 


44 


*New Orleans 


51 


tt 


44 


it 


it 



70 SOCIAL COMPOSITION OF AMERICAN CITIES. 

The proportion of foreigners in a town depends 
largely upon its location and its prevailing industries. 
In the South, domestic service and all the simpler forms 
of labor are performed by the negroes. The propor- 
tion of foreigners in Southern cities is consequently 
small. New Orleans has, indeed, a large French ele- 
ment, which gives it fifty-one per cent, of foreigners 
with their children; but in Nashville, Term., they com- 
pose only eight per cent, of the population; in Charles- 
ton, S. C, only fourteen per cent., and in Richmond, 
Va., only eight per cent. In the national capital, where 
there are few manufactories and many colored people 
for domestic service, the proportion of foreigners is 
also small, — only twenty-five in a hundred. As a rule, 
manufacturing cities have more foreign-born than cities 
of trade. In Milwaukee and Detroit the foreign ele- 
ment comprises eighty-four persons out of one hun- 
dred. In Columbus, Ohio, and Kansas City, Missouri, 
the proportions are only thirty-six and forty-four out 
of a hundred. A few words as to the nationality of 

Cleveland 80 are foreign-born or children of foreign-born parents. 

Pittsburg 61 " " " 

Buffalo 71 " " 

♦Washington 25 " " " 

Newark 63 " " 

♦Louisville 53 " " " 

Jersey City 70 »■ » " " 

Detroit 84 

♦Milwaukee 84 

♦Providence 52 *\ " " 

The census gives the actual figures for New York (vol. i., p. 675) ; 
those for the other cities were determined by the use of the above 
ratio, except in the cases marked by asterisks, where the census gives 
the ratio for the State in which they are situated, and that has ac- 
cordingly been adopted. 



SOCIAL COMPOSITION OF AMERICAN CITIES. 71 

our foreign population. It is composed of two great 
elements and a score and more of lesser ones. Twenty- 
nine and seven-tenths per cent, of our entire foreign 
population have come from various parts of the Ger- 
man Empire, and twenty-seven and four-tenths per 
cent, have come from Ireland.* Counting parents and 
children of the first generation, there were in 1880 four- 
fifths as many Irish in the United States as in all Ire- 
land. New York is the first Irish city in the world, 
Philadelphia the third, Brooklyn the fifth, and Boston 
the sixth. Berlin and Hamburg are the only German 
cities that contain so many Germans as New York. 

The Irish form the chief foreign element in the East- 
ern States. In Boston and most New England towns 
they outnumber all other foreigners put together. In 
New York, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and all the other 
Eastern cities, except Baltimore, they are by far the 
largest class. They also head the list of foreigners in 
San Francisco, being more numerous by half than the 
Chinese. In the great cities of the interior the Irish 
are also strongly represented, and in none of the more 
important places are they rivaled in number by any 
other class of foreigners except the Germans. 

Immigrants from the German Empire have never to 
any great extent made their home in New England. 
In New York, Brooklyn, Jersey City, and Philadelphia 
they are very numerous, and in Baltimore they even 
outnumber the Irish. In all the great cities of the in- 

* It is probable that the Germans and Irish form a smaller propor- 
tion of the foreign population now than in 1880, when these figures 
were gathered, and that their relative numerical importance will con- 
tinue to decrease, while that of Italians, Scandinavians, and others 
will grow. 



f2 SOCIAL COMPOSITION OF AMERICAN CITIES. 

terior, from Buffalo to Denver, the Germans lead, often 
outnumbering the Irish two to one ; and in such places 
as St. Louis, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, and Buffalo, com- 
posing, as the Irish do in so many Eastern towns, more 
than half the total foreign population. 

The next most numerous element in our foreign pop- 
ulation is that which comes from Canada and the Brit- 
ish Provinces. This element is composed of three 
classes : there are, in the first place, considerable num- 
bers of the regular English-speaking people of British 
America who are led by various motives to take up a 
residence in the United States. These are widely scat- 
tered throughout the country, but are most numerous 
in Boston, Buffalo, and Detroit. Then there has been, 
of late years, a large influx of French Canadians es- 
pecially into the manufacturing towns of New England 
and the East, such as Lowell, Lawrence, and Fall Kiver. 
In some of these places they are nearly as numerous as 
the Lish. A third class of immigrants from British 
America is composed of those who, having originally 
come to Canada from across the water, after a short 
residence there, have moved to the United States. 

Our immigrants from England, Scotland, and Wales 
are not so fond of the city as the Germans and Irish. 
They are pretty evenly scattered over the whole of the 
North and "West. Other nationalities are largely local- 
ized. New York City has the most of the Italians, 
although they are numerous in all the cities. The Swiss 
are found chiefly in New York, Chicago, and St. Louis; 
the Russians in New York and Chicago ; the Poles 
in New York, Chicago, Detroit, and Milwaukee ; the 
Swedes and Norwegians in Chicago, New York, Minne- 
aj^olis, and St. Paul ; the Hollanders in Paterson, N. J., 



SOCIAL COMPOSITION OF AMERICAN CITIES. 73 

Chicago, and New York ; the Portuguese in Boston and 
San Francisco ; the Danes in Chicago, New York, and 
San Francisco ; the Bohemians in Chicago, New York, 
Cleveland, and St. Louis ; the Spaniards in New York, 
and the Chinamen in San Francisco and the towns of 
the Pacific Slope. 

While it is very common to find men of foreign blood 
at the head of great mercantile enterprises and holding 
other important positions in society, and while multi- 
tudes of such persons are engaged in the professions 
and in trade, yet those thus employed form, on the 
whole, an inconsiderable portion of our entire foreign 
population. The great bulk of them with their chil- 
dren are engaged in the manual labor of the land. 
They are the hewers of wood and drawers of water, 
day-laborers, domestic servants, factory hands, and un- 
skilled mechanics. Not every foreigner is a working- 
man ; but in the cities, at least, it may almost be said 
that every workingman is a foreigner. The wage- 
working class, especially that part of it engaged in 
the simpler forms of labor, is almost entirely made up 
of foreigners. How rare a thing it is, in these days, 
to find a domestic servant who is of native parentage 
or to meet a day-laborer who speaks without a brogue. 
In the manufacturing and mechanical industries there 
would, of course, be a much larger percentage of 
Americans of native stock than among day-laborers. 
Yet even among those thus engaged, in the fifty chief 
cities, the census informs us that forty-one out of every 
hundred were born in foreign lands, and it is probable 
that quite as many more are children of foreign-born 
parents. 

We see, then, that of the two great classes which 



74 SOCIAL COMPOSITION OF AMERICAN CITIES. 

divide the society of American cities between them, 
the smaller one, comprising those engaged in profes- 
sions and trades, is principally composed of native 
Americans, while the larger class, the workingmen, are 
nearly all of foreign extraction. 

Compare our position in this respect with that of the 
European cities and it will be seen that in none of 
them is the problem of the relation between the social 
classes complicated by such race differences as with us. 
London is one of the most cosmopolitan of the trans- 
atlantic cities. Strangers from all parts may hear their 
mother-tongue on its streets ; yet out of every one 
hundred Londoners in 1880, sixty-three were natives 
of London, ninety-four of England and Wales, and 
ninety-eight of Great Britain and Ireland. The Emer- 
ald Isle furnished but two and one-tenth per cent, of 
London's population ; and all foreign countries put to- 
gether, only one and six-tenths per cent.* The same 
characteristics may be observed in Paris, Berlin, Vienna, 
and other foreign capitals. 

But the race difference carries along with it another 
difference, which offers an even more serious obstacle 
to the safe solution of the social problem. The one great 
bond which alone can bind rich and poor together is 
that of religion. The one institution that can bridge 
the gulf between the classes is the church, and the only 
power that can hope to cope with cruel interference 
and grasping greed of the one party and the reckless- 
ness, drunkenness, and violence of the other, is that of 
the Gospel of Jesus Christ; but here the normal influ- 
ences of religion are weakened and well-nigh destroyed 
by radical differences in faith and doctrine. 

* Census of England and Wales, 1881, vol. iv., p. 59. 



SOCIAL COMPOSITION OF AMERICAN CITIES. 75 

Ours is a Protestant land in name, institution, and 
tradition. Among Americans of native stock the pro- 
portion of Romanists is insignificant. It may, there- 
fore, be said that the people engaged in the professional 
and mercantile occupations in cities are mostly Protest- 
ants.* The religion of the working-class, they being 
largely composed of foreigners and their children, as 
we have seen, may be determined by a glance at the 
religious condition of the countries from which they 
have come; for we may take it for granted that the 
children of the first generation, as a rule, continue to 
keep the faith of their fathers. 

In the case of the Germans, our largest class of 
foreigners, we have made a somewhat careful investi- 
gation. Reckoning all who have come from Protestant 
parts as Protestants, and all from Catholic parts as 
Catholics, and supposing those who have come from 
parts where the population is divided between the two 
faiths to be divided in the same ratio, it appears that 
for every one hundred emigrants from the German 
Empire, thirty-eight are Roman Catholics and sixty-two 
Protestants. 

As to the Irish, although one-fifth of the inhabitants 
of the Emerald Isle are said to be Protestants, those 
who have emigrated are nearly all Catholics. 

The English, Scotch, and Welsh, on the other hand, 
are of the Protestant faith. So are the Scandinavians 
and a part of the Canadians; but the Italians, French 
Canadians, French, Mexicans, Poles, Austrians, Bohe- 

" * This is a very general statement. Jews and Roman Catholics 
are very numerous among the merchants, especially in some places, 
yet when compared with the whole number, they would form an 
inconsiderable proportion. 



76 SOCIAL COMPOSITION OF AMERICAN CITIES. 

mians, and Belgians, for the most part, pay allegiance 
to the Pope. Adding together in one column the 
foreign born who, from their place of nativity, may be 
supposed to be Protestants, and in another, those who 
may be supposed to be Koman Catholics, the Catholics 
are found to be somewhat more numerous, the propor- 
tion being about that of 17 to 15. These figures give 
only an approximate idea of the proportionate strength 
of the two great branches of the Christian religion among 
our workingmen, yet they make it evident that at least 
one-half of them in ordinary American cities are Eoman 
Catholics. 

In the case of any particular town, the proportion 
would obviously vary with the prevailing element 
among the foreign-born population: the French and 
Irish cities being more strongly Catholic, the German 
and Scandinavian more strongly Protestant. 

There is also a considerable difference between the 
Protestantism of the two social classes. English, Scotch, 
and Welsh find our American churches congenial, but 
it is otherwise with most of the Lutherans. Our creeds 
may not seriously disagree with theirs, but our ways 
and traditions are strange to them. Many have little 
sympathy with the stricter observance of the Lord's 
day and the inculcation of total abstinence as a Chris- 
tian duty, with our more profound belief in the doc- 
trine of regeneration and the religious methods and 
movements that result from it. Yfe seem to them 
pietists and enthusiasts. Of all things, men are most 
conservative respecting their religious belief. It is hard^ 
for those who belong to religious bodies of one kind to 
influence those of another. The mother-tongue, long 
after it has vanished from commercial life and even 



SOCIAL COMPOSITION OF AMERICAN CITIES. ?7 

from the family circle, still firmly holds its place in the 
pulpit. It is common to find among our Protestant 
Germans and Welsh that the families attend church 
where services are conducted in a language that the 
children cannot speak and can hardly understand. The 
common faith, therefore, forms a much weaker bond 
than one might wish between the Protestants of the 
working-class and those in other conditions of life. 

And here again one cannot help contrasting our sit- 
uation with that of the European cities. Most of them 
contain both Protestants and Eomanists, although one 
element is usually strongly predominant; but in no case 
is there a division of religions corresponding with that 
of classes. The faith of the rich is ever the faith of the 
poor and the common bond between them. In the most 
splendid Koman churches you will see the titled lady in 
silk, the humble contadina with the basket by her side 
and the beggar, filthy and tattered, kneeling together on 
the marble floor. The richest and the most wretched are 
equally at home within the consecrated walls. From 
the mansions of West End, noblemen go down to 
the slums of East London and mingle freely with the 
people. Countesses conduct meetings for poor mothers 
and organize clubs for corking-girls. In an English 
Christian home the servants are present at family 
prayers and attend the same church as their masters. 
But with us, especially in the cities, the church of the 
laborer is one, and the church of the well-to-do — or, as 
it is beginning to be called, " the capitalists' church " 
— is another. 

I have thus endeavored to show that from one-half 
to three-fourths of the inhabitants of the cities are 
workingmen; that the natural separation between them 



YS SOCIAL COMPOSITION OF AMERICAN CITIES. 

and the rest of society has been broadened by the 
progress of mechanical invention which has cheapened 
the value of muscle-work in comparison with that of 
brain-work, and has thus increased the difference in 
wealth between the two classes, and by the rise of rents 
which has removed their dwellings from one another. 
And we have seen that the difficulty is greatly aggra- 
vated in the United States, because to the class-differ- 
ence is added a race-difference, and to the race- 
difference, a difference in religious faith. 

Ameiican cities, then, have two classes of people: 
the smaller, engaged in the professions and commercial 
life, is in comfortable circumstances, well-housed, well- 
clothed, and well-fed, is mainly of native stock and 
Protestant faith; the larger class toils with the hands, is 
less comfortable, worse housed, more coarsely and 
scantily clothed, and more poorly fed, is of foreign race 
and is largely Roman Catholic in religion. 



) 



CHAPTER m. 



THE THREAT OF THE CITIES. 



"Is our civilization perishable?" To this startling 
question, which a recent writer* answers in the affirma- 
tive, one's first impulse prompts the reply : " By no 
means. "With Christian faith for the soul of it, the free 
school for its breastplate, and the printing-press for its 
weapon, the modern civilization can never perish." But 
careful attention to the perils of the times must modify 
the answer. If our civilization stands, thi3 will not be 
because it is incapable of destruction, but because its 
sons and daughters, roused by its dangers, rally to its 
defence. 

There can be no doubt that a state of society like the 
one in which we are living would be impossible except 
for the Christian religion. So vast and complex a 
structure as that of modern civilization could only stand 
on the solid foundation of public integrity. Unless the 
majority of the people were honest you could not have 
confidence and credit sufficient for the conduct of com- 
mercial transactions; unless a spirit of order and justice 
were abroad, property would not find secure protection 
and enterprise would be discouraged. Domestic purity 
is the corner-stone of civil liberty. Popular intelli- 
gence forms the chariot-wheels of progress. Thrift 

Judge J. A. Jameson, North American Review, March, 1884. 

(79) 



80 TEE TEBEAT OF TEE CITIES. 

and prosperity ever follow industry, economy, and tem- 
perance. The degree of advancement in any state de- 
pends chiefly upon the prevalence of such qualities as 
these among its citizens. But these qualities are dis- 
tinctive marks of Christian character. They are the 
fruitage of the tree of faith, and never have been 
known as popular traits except in nations whose God is 
Jehovah. 

Moreover, the degree of the nation's civilization de- 
pends upon the purity of its faith. The better the 
religion, the better will be the public integrity resulting 
from it; and the stronger its basis in public integrity, 
the higher will become the development and the more 
complex the organism of society. There is no need of 
showing that those countries in which degraded forms 
of Christianity prevail have lower standards of morals, 
and consequently lower degrees of civilization, than 
they enjoy who cherish a purer faith. Nor is there 
need of pointing out the truth that the evils which per- 
vade our own land and sadly mar the beauty of its 
freedom, arise from the corruptness and incompleteness 
of our Christianity, our far-off following of our Master 
and our failure to accept His teachings and put His 
principles to practice. Many earnest men, indeed, are 
thinking that civilization in the most enlightened 
nations of the earth has reached a point where it fal- 
ters, and can be urged no higher until men eschew the 
selfish plan of competition, which is now omnipotent in 
trade and industry, and substitute for it the essentially 
Christian principle of co-operation. 

Now, if a community whose social system has been 
organized amid Christian influences and upon the Chris- 
tian plan should at any time lose its religious faith, 



THE THREAT OF THE CITIES. 81 

such loss would inevitably be followed by the slow 
decay of its morality, and the subsequent collapse of its 
civilization. The higher and more complex that civil- 
ization had become, the greater would be the ruin of its 
overthrow; for the body of Christian civilization can- 
not live without the soul. Let faith leave society and 
the lapse back toward barbarism will commence at 
once. Or if a purer and higher form of faith should 
give place to a lower and more corrupt form, such a 
civilization as had naturally grown up under the influ- 
ence of the purer faith could not be sustained, but 
must certainly give place to civilization of a lower type. 

Again, if from any portion of the society of modern 
times Christian life and power should be cut off through- 
out that portion the process of integration would 
speedily ensue. If from certain strata of the people 
the preserving strength of the " salt of the earth " be 
taken away, those strata, whether high or low, would 
forthwith commence sinking toward the normal plane 
of heathen living; and in their decay would bring dis- 
tress, if not ruin, upon the whole of society. The por- 
tents of such perils as these are, as we believe, plainly 
to be seen in the present religious condition of Ameri- 
can cities. 

We have already observed that a gulf broad and 
deep divides the people of our towns into an upper and 
a lower class; and that by no means the smallest ele- 
ment in the difference between these two sections of 
society is a difference of religious belief. The pure 
high faith of our fathers, the faith that promoted at 
once free-thinking and right-thinking, power and purity, 
personal liberty and personal responsibility, — the faith 
on which the nation was founded, and through whose 



82 THE TRUE AT OF THE CITIES. 

strength she has endured the shock of battles and stress 
of stormy times,— this faith has almost no place among 
the working-class. But the working-class holds a pre- 
ponderance of power in the cities ; and the cities, 
already mighty, in their fearful growth, promise at no 
distant day to have a preponderance of power in the 
nation. 

It will not be difficult to convince those who are 
acquainted with the life of our cities, that the Protest- 
ant churches, as a rule, have no following among the 
workingmen. Everybody knows it. Go into an ordi- 
nary church on Sunday morning, and you see lawyers, 
physicians, merchants, and business men with their 
families : — you see teachers, salesmen, and clerks, and 
a certain proportion of educated mechanics : but the 
workingman and his household are not there. It is 
doubtful if one in twenty of the average congregation 
in English-speaking, Protestant, city churches fairly be- 
longs to this class; but granting the proportion to be so 
great as one in ten or one in five, even then you would 
have two-thirds of the people furnishing only one-tenth 
or one-fifth of the congregation. The recent experi- 
ment of an enterprising newspaper reporter in a certain 
American city which has the reputation of being the 
model Christian city of the world will not be forgotten. 
He donned the garb of a decent laborer, and presented 
himself for admission, at each in turn of the principal 
churches in the city. At some he was treated with 
positive rudeness, at others with cold politeness. Only 
one or two gave him a cordial, and even then a some- 
what surprised welcome. The incident shows that in 
that city, at least, the appearance of a workingman at 
church on Sunday morning is not common. 



THE TEBEAT OF THE CITIES. 83 

The same thing is illustrated by the experience of 
those churches which have been so located that their 
former congregations have moved away from them, and 
in the course of the city's growth their neighborhood 
has been filled up by the working-classes. How few 
have succeeded in holding their own, not merely in 
financial strength, but even in the size of the congrega- 
tion, under such trying circumstances. Are not the 
down-town portions of the larger cities well supplied 
with old churches, that used on every Lord's day to be 
filled with worshippers? But now, deserted by their 
congregations, they stand idle and empty, or serve the 
purposes of trade, while the population about them 
grows ever denser. In a certain city whose case has 
been examined with some care, one denomination, and 
that the leading one, has but eight churches left in 
parts of the town more densely populated than ever, 
where it formerly had eighteen. Other denominations 
in the same city have not fared much better. Some 
marked exceptions are gladly noted, and there is a 
goodly number of G-od's people in every considerable 
town who are doing efficient work among the poor 
through missions, Sunday-schools, and a multitude of 
religious agencies ; nevertheless, it must be allowed 
that the American Protestant Church, as a whole, has 
failed to win to itself the working- classes of the towns. 

It is not claimed that religion consists in going to 
church, any more than eating consists in sitting down 
at a dinner-table; but as it maybe presumed that who- 
ever sits down at a table spread with food does so for 
the purpose of eating, so also we may presume that 
those who attend the services of God's house do so for 
the purpose of worshipping Him and hearing His 



84 THE THREAT OF THE CITIES. 

word; and those who care for the word and the wor- 
ship will not be more likely to neglect the sanctuary 
than a hungry man to neglect his dinner-table. 

A word should be said regarding those Protestant 
churches which conduct their services in foreign lan- 
guages. Some of these, notably the "Welsh, and the 
German Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, Congrega- 
tionalisms, and others, are doing a work of great value; 
but they are still quite weak, and their influence cor- 
respondingly limited. The national churches of Ger- 
many, Norway, and Sweden have been transplanted to 
our soil to some extent, and are chiefly composed of 
workingmen. But, unhappily, they have not, in most 
cases, a strong, positive spiritual power over their ad- 
herents — a fact which none see more clearly and lament 
more bitterly than the more spiritual of their own 
members. There is said to be as much religious activ- 
ity among the Christians of Berlin as in any of the 
larger German towns. Yet we find in that great city 
of one and one-third millions, only twenty-eight 
churches and thirteen chapels belonging to the estab- 
lished faith; and several of these are but thinly attended. 
Counting the establishments of the flourishing Young- 
Men's Christian Association, the Catholic churches, the 
Jewish synagogues, the chapeb of foreigners, and e\eij 
place for religious gatherings of every sort, there are, in 
all, about sixty places of public worship in Berlin, or 
about one-tenth as many in proportion to the population 
as in New York. Nevertheless, eighty-five out of every 
hundred children born in Berlin are christened accord-, 
ing to the rites of the established church, and the greater 
part of the people are confirmed at the proper age, and 
make it a point of duty to partake of the sacrament at 



THE THREAT OF THE CITIES. 85 

stated periods. You accordingly find churches in Ber- 
lin whose membership numbers scores of thousands, 
while their seating capacity is sufficient for only a few 
hundred, and is even then rarely used to the full. The 
German churches, in being transplanted to our soil, 
have not changed their character materially, and are 
doing far less than might be desired in the way of es- 
tablishing a living faith and an active righteousness 
among their followers. In many cases their grasp upon 
the people is very feeble. Not only do they reckon as 
members multitudes who do not attend their services 
for years together, but there are thousands more who, 
leaving their religion behind them in the Fatherland, 
never take pains to connect themselves with the churches 
on this side of the water. It is a significant fact that 
while nearly all our Scandinavians, and the majority of 
our Germans, are nominally Lutherans, the Lutheran 
Church, in all its branches, together with the United 
Evangelical Church, and the United Brethren, had less 
than one million members in the United States at the 
time of the last census.* 

In striking contrast with this is the condition of the 
Boman Catholic Church. It may be true that she holds 
her people with a looser grasp here than in Europe, 
and that she has altogether lost her influence over very 
considerable numbers of them; yet it must be acknowl- 
edged, on the other hand, that there have been surpris- 

* In saying this we do not wish to speak unkindly of our German 
brethren, multitudes of whom are of distinguished piety, while their 
Christian scholarship has made all the world their debtors; nor would 
we ignore the powerful evangelical movement which the last few 
years have witnessed in the Fatherland, whose influence has been 
felt on this side of the water, and from which great things are to be 
hoped. 



86 THE THREAT OF THE CITIES. 

ingly few conversions from Rornanism io Protestantism. 
Considering the fact that she has been compelled to 
push her system amid the full blaze of the light of 
modern times, in an atmosphere permeated with that 
spirit of freedom whose pure breath is her poison, the 
success of Eome in the United States appears amazing. 
There are, at the present time, about 7,000,000 of Ro- 
man Catholics (communicants) in the land.* In 1800 
there were but one hundred thousand. It is less than 
one hundred years since the first bishop came to the 
United States. There were, in 1880, twelve archbishops, 
55 bishops, 5,989 priests; there were 1,136 students in 
seminaries; there were 2,246 parochial schools, and 
405,234 pupils.f The rate of increase for the Roman 
Catholic Church since 1850 has been more than twice as 
great as that of evangelical Protestant churches. J 

The Catholic Church is emphatically the working- 
man's church. She rears her great edifices in the 
midst of the densest populations, provides them with 
many seats and has the seats well filled. They are the 
places in which you never fail to find large congrega- 
tions at the appointed times of public worship, the vast 
majority of whom are obviously workingmen and 
workingwomen. Here may be seen in great numbers, 
what many an earnest preacher of the reformed faith 
eagerly and vainly longs to behold in the pews before 
him, sons and daughters of toil clad in coarse garments 
with hard hands and plain, care-worn faces. The Cath- 

*The official statistics for 1884 were, 6,628,176. This is the esti- 
mate of the Independent, May 19, 1887. 
+ Sadlier's Cath. Directory, 1880. 
\ For further treatment of this subject see Our Country, pp. 56 and 



THE THREAT OF THE CITIES. 87 

olics make double the use of their houses of worship 
that we do of ours. Three or four times on every Sun- 
day great congregations pour forth from their doors, 
whereas we are contented with but one or two meet- 
ings. Throughout the entire week their churches are 
open, and one is rarely entered where a number of 
people are not to be found kneeling in silent devotion. 
Ours stand most of the time idle and empty, with 
closely-locked doors. In this way a given number of 
Catholic churches of a given size accommodate many 
more people than Protestant churches of the same size 
and number. 

The religion of Kome is far better than none, and 
we may well believe that many humble souls under the 
leadings of the Spirit have found their way through 
tangled meshes of falsehood with which she has cov- 
ered it, down to the eternal truths on which her vener- 
able faith is based. The influence of the Catholic 
Church, on the whole, is doubtless conservative, and 
will, probably, become more and more so. The Bo- 
man ism of America is likely to be better than that of 
Europe. Yet Komanism is not the religion we wish for 
our fellow-citizens. It conceals the fatherhood of God 
behind the motherhood of the Church, and the brother- 
hood of Christ behind the motherhood of the Virgin. 
It degrades the atonement by making its benefits a 
matter of barter ; it leads to idolatry and image-wor- 
ship ; it snatches from the believer the great gift 
bought with the blood of Christ, by thrusting in a 
priest between him and his heavenly Father. It has 
kept the people from the Word of God and compelled 
them to accept forced and unscholarly interpretations 
of it. It has lowered the tone of morality. It has 



88 THE THREAT OF THE CITIES. 

quenced free thought, stifled free speech, and threatens 
to throttle free government. It has limited the ad- 
vancement of every country on which its hand has been 
laid. If the religion of Kome becomes ours, then a 
civilization like that of Italy will be ours too. 

There is no more striking illustration of the aliena- 
tion of the masses in the cities from the Protestant 
churches than the meagreness of their accommodations. 
If the laboring class should contribute its due propor- 
tion to the congregations, the churches, many of which 
are now half empty, would not begin to hold the people. 
In 1880 there was in the United States one evangelical 
church organization to every five hundred and sixteen of 
the population; in Boston, counting churches of all kinds, 
there was but one to every 1,600 of the population ; in 
Chicago, one to every 2,081; in New York, one to every 
2,468; in St. Louis, one to every 2,800.* In New York 
below Fourteenth Street, where the people are princi- 
pally laborers, there are only half as many Protestant 
places of worship in proportion to the number of 
people as above Fourteenth Street in the well-to-do 
parts. 

The worst of it is, that instead of improving, the con- 
dition of things has been growing worse every year. 
While the prosperous classes are moving away to the 
suburbs and the laborers are being more densely 
massed together in the heart of the city, the church 
accommodations even if fully used are becoming more 
inadequate to the needs of the community. Look at 
the case of New York. Including religious organiza- - 
tions of all sorts, that city had in 1830 one place of 

* It is true that the city churches are very much larger, but 
hardly four times as large. 



THE THREAT OF THE CITIES. 89 

worship for every 1,853 of its people; in 1840, one for 
1,840; in 1850, one for 2,095; in 1860, one for 2,344; 
in 1870, one for 2,004; in 1880, one for 2,468. The 
religious history of Chicago is even more noteworthy 
in this respect. Chicago had in 1840 one church for 
every 747 of its population; in 1851 there was one for 
every 1,009; in 1862, one for 1,301; in 1870, one for 
1,593; in 1880, one for 2,081; in 1885, one for 2,254. 
All the large cities have districts which are destitute of 
church accommodations, and have not seats in Sunday- 
school for more than one-tenth of their children. 

The startling difference between the ratio of com- 
municants in city and country furnishes another illus- 
tration of the fact that the workingmen who so largely 
people the cities are almost entirely cut off from the 
American Protestant churches. While in the country 
at large one person in five is a member of some 
evangelical church, in the city of New York it is only 
one in thirteen, and in Chicago one in nineteen. In the 
whole State of Ohio, cities included, more than one- 
fifth of the people belong to evangelical churches, but 
in Cincinnati only one in twenty-three. The alarming 
feature of the case, and that which we wish to empha- 
size, is that this small number of Christians in the com- 
munity comes entirely from the upper class ; this one 
in twenty-three is almost never a workingman. The 
trouble is not merely that the cities have so little Chris- 
tianity, but that the Christianity which they do have is 
confined to certain limited sections of society, leaving 
other sections, and those which comprise the great 
mass of the people, quite destitute of it, and practically 
heathen. Says Dr. A. J. Gordon, of Boston: "We talk 
about dangerous classes. The danger lies in the sepa- 



90 THE THREAT OF THE CITIES. 

ration of classes, — those who are the ' salt of the earth ' 
keeping by themselves instead of coming in contact 
with that which tends to corruption. If the great mass 
of Christians would come in heart-to-heart contact with 
this so-called dangerous class much might be done to 
change their character. But here is the failure. We 
talk too much about family churches, and too little 
about missionary churches." 

One of the most serious evils consequent upon the 
limitation of the church's operations to the well-to-do 
classes is the reflex influence of such limitations upon 
the church itself. The moment it cease3 to be really 
catholic, extending its blessings to all sorts and condi- 
tions of men, and becomes the organ of any class, 
section or party, that moment it commences an unnat- 
ural and unhealthful life. The rich need the poor no 
less than the poor need the rich. That church which, 
although situated in the midst of poverty and misfor- 
tune, is for any reason restrained from stretching out 
its hands to the needy, will itself suffer more seriously 
because of such neglect than those from whom its suc- 
cor is withheld. Avarice, self-indulgence, formalism, 
arrogance, and hypocrisy are weeds of rank and ready 
growth in a soil whose energy is not consumed in fruit- 
bearing. Spiritual power decays ; the tremendous facts 
of our faith appear dim and distant, .and that which 
should be a corps in the host of the living God, is de- 
graded to the position of a musico-religious club, or a 
mutual improvement society. 

The reasons for the alienation of the working-classes 
of the city from the faith of our fathers are hot difficult 
to find. The chief of them have already been sug- 
gested. These peoj)le are foreigners, or the children of 



TEE THREAT OF TEE CITIES. 91 

foreign-born parents, almost to a man. The majority 
of them are of Koman Catholic training. The Cath- 
olics make it a point of great importance to give the 
Protestants a wide berth in all matters of religion. 
We Protestants seem to have consented to their plan. 
Whether we think that they have a religion good 
enough for their needs, or why it is we will not venture 
to say, but it is a fact that although our land is full of 
Romanists we make but few efforts to meet the pe- 
culiar difficulties that stand in the way of their con- 
version to the truth as it is in Christ. How many 
Christian families employ Catholic servants for years 
without paying any attention whatever to their spirit- 
ual welfare. Men are willing enough to supply their 
physical needs, but do nothing for the interest of their 
souls. We send missionaries abroad to Catholic Mexico, 
Spain, and Austria, but when a fellow-countryman is a 
Catholic, we accept it as a foregone conclusion that 
nothing can be done for him. They verily make 
greater efforts for our conversion than we do for theirs. 
With some important exceptions those who come 
from foreign lands, both Catholics and Protestants, 
bring with them most crude and imperfect notions of 
religious truth. No Christian culture lies behind them. 
They have never breathed a Christian atmosphere. 
Ideas with which all the Americans, whether of pious 
parentage or not, have been familiar from childhood, 
are strange to them. For at least one generation their 
language shuts them out from the influence of our 
churches. The whole method of our services, adapted 
to the cultured, Christianized elements of society, is so 
far above them that it fails to secure their interest and 
attention. When one of them strays into a church, the 
chances are that he finds nothing there for him. 



92 THE THREAT OF THE CITIES. 

Much of the preservative power of the Christian re- 
ligion comes from what may be called its indirect radi- 
ance. Christianity not only makes its followers virtuous, 
but it increases the virtue and intelligence of the whole 
community. When emigrants from the lowest classes 
of Ireland or Germany become so located in this coun- 
try that they feel the influences of an intelligent, Chris- 
tian community, they immediately respond to such in- 
fluences, even though they still cling to the old faith, 
and their children helped forward by the public schools 
catch the spirit of our institutions and in due time be- 
come genuine patriots and valuable citizens. But un- 
fortunately this is much less likely to be the case with 
those of foreign blood who live in large cities. Where 
from sixty to ninety people out of every hundred are of 
foreign parentage, and the residences of the natives 
are so separated from those of the foreigners that con- 
tact between them is neither close nor frequent, it is a 
slow process raising the ignorant, degraded peasants 
of Europe to a place of fitness for citizenship in our 
democratic republic. 

One of the most hopeful features of the times is the 
appreciation of education and the desire to give their 
children a schooling which is manifest among our work- 
ingmen. But the public schools do not give a moral 
and religious training of great value. Moreover, ex- 
treme poverty and the needs of growing families make 
it necessary for most working-people to take their chil- 
dren from school and put them to work as soon as they 
are old enough to contribute to the family budget; 
The " three R's," with a smattering of geography, is all 
that the schools usually give them. This is a good deal 
better than nothing, ho^vever, and most of them at odd 



THE THREAT OF THE CITIES. 93 

times manage to gather a considerable fund of infor- 
mation from books and newspapers. We are confident 
that our workingmen do much more reading than those 
of the old world, and are correspondingly more intelli- 
gent ; but on the other hand, there is reason for fearing 
that much of their reading is not particularly profitable. 
The circulation of sensational " family " story papers and 
second-rate sporting papers in this country is prodigious, 
and is rapidly increasing. Thousands of the well-known 
advertisement copies commencing and not finishing 
the trash stories of such publications are given away 
every week in all the towns. They are handed out in 
unlimited quantities to shop-girls and laborers as they 
return from their work, most frequently on Saturday 
night, and they are not usually refused or thrown away, 
but are carefully folded and placed in the lunch-basket; 
a thing the like of which is to be seen in no foreign city. 
Such reading answers about as well for mental food as 
rankly-flavored confections would for honest bread. 
And there is little doubt that much of the reading done 
in the workingman's home is of this class. 

Theoretically, their participation as sovereign voters 
in our free Christian government ought to do much for 
the development of intelligence and self-reliance among 
the workingmen. And so it would were our Govern- 
ment conducted on the original plan of the New Eng- 
land country town, where every item of administration 
is freely discussed in the presence of all the voters at 
the annual town meeting; but no one is wild enough to 
claim that such contact with average ward politicians 
as constitutes the political education of the ordinary 
city laborer can contribute greatly either to his mental 
or moral advancement. 



94 THE THREAT OF THE CITIES. 

The other great reason for the feeble influence of 
Protestant Christianity over the working-class springs 
from the so-called conflict between labor and capital. 
As we have already seen, the wealth of all Christendom, 
and that of the United States in particular, has enor- 
mously increased during the past twenty-five years. 
The census of 1880 estimated the wealth of the nation 
at $43,642,000,000, which makes us the richest nation 
in the world. If our wealth had been equally distrib- 
uted in 1860, each person's share would have been $514; 
in 1870 it would have been $624; in 1880 it would have 
been $314, for every man, woman, and child in the land. 
During those twenty years the population increased 59 
per cent., the wealth more than 151 per cent. A very 
small share of this increase has gone to the working- 
man, fin certain important respects he is poorer to-day 
than twenty-five years ago J S Wages are indeed higher 
in comparison with the cost of living, and many com- 
forts and luxuries have been so cheapened as to come 
within his reach. Science and invention have also 
made certain valuable additions to his home; but his 
progress has been slow at best, and his neighbor, the 
business man, has far outstripped him in the race for 
wealth. 

"Wealth and poverty are, after all, only relative terms. 
As Mr. Emerson has said : " The poor are only those 
who feel poor, and poverty consists in feeling poor." 
In this sense of the word the American workingman 
was never before so poor as to-day. If his income has 
increased, so have his wants, and far more rapidly. 
What boots it to tell a man whose coat is worn and 
shabby, and whose shoes are breaking through, that 
people of his class a hundred years ago wore coarser 



THE THREAT OF THE CITIES. 95 

clothes and had never a shoe to the foot? Is that a 
reason why he should go tattered and barefooted while 
multitudes about him revel in luxury? Because a 
man's father in Ireland or Germany never knew the 
taste of meat, and lived on black bread and potatoes, 
does it follow that he ought to suffer the like priva- 
tions? By no means is the workingman ignorant of 
the enormous increase of these latter days. Instead of 
under-estimating them, he holds exaggerated notions 
of the riches of the rich, while he fails to note such 
improvements as time has brought in his own condi- 
tion. Becent labor statistics show that the workingman 
is better off now than twenty years ago. But the men 
themselves affirm, on the contrary, that things are grow- 
ing worse from year to year, — the wages lower, the 
work harder and more uncertain, and the prospect of 
promotion more and more hopeless.* 

Now the workingmen, as a class, are coming to be- 
lieve that the bulk of the wealth of modern times be- 
longs to them, all wealth being, as is claimed, the fruit 
of toil. It has sprung from the brawn of their arm 
and the sweat of their brow. Capital has but furnished 
tools, they have done the work and won the rewards; 
to them, therefore, those rewards belong. But instead 
of receiving what is their own, they have been cheated 
out of nine-tenths of it by grasping capitalists, who are 
protected in their plundering by unjust laws and a 
tyrannical social system. There is a bitterness about 



/ 

the discontent of these men. They feel that they are 
being robbed every day and cannot help it. The de- 



* The writer has conversed on this subject with a number of work- 
ingmen engaged in various occupations both here and in England, 
and finds but one opinion among them. 



96 THE THREAT OF 1HE CITIES, 

mand for work is so great that however hard the job 
and low the wages, a dozen men stand ready to take a 
place as soon as it is left vacant. 

A street-car driver in a certain American city gave 
the following account of his work, which was afterward 
confirmed: He is occupied seventeen hours a day seven 
days in a week. He has, out of this, ten minutes for 
dinner, and nine for supper. He can get but five or 
six hours for sleep. All the work connected with that 
car he does himself. Even the hostler's pay comes out 
of his wages. The car, at a reasonable estimate, earns 
$108.50 each week, after deducting the cost of feeding 
the horses that draw it, of which sum $97.50 goes to 
the company, and $11 to him; but he finds that from 
sheer want of sleep he must usually " lay oft " one day 
in the week; $1.57 is, therefore, taken to pay for a sub- 
stitute. The care of the horses costs him seventy cents 
more. Therefore, out of the entire receipts of the es- 
tablishment, he who bears the burden, braving the win- 
ter's bitter breath, and the fiercest heat of summer; the 
wind, the storm, and the weather, every day from dawn 
until midnight — this man receives but $8.73 while cap- 
ital's share is $97.50. This poor driver thinks that he 
is cheated; that the company is robbing him, in a sys- 
tematic and legalized fashion, every day. They have 
the advantage over him; he cannot help himself; he 
must work on their terms or starve; but he hates them, 
grinds his teeth at them, and haply would not count it 
stealing if be could get some of their dimes into his 
own pocket.* 

* This case is introduced to show that there is never a lack of men 
who are williug to take the most trying and miserably-paid-for kinds 
of work. The writer is glad to believe that few street railway com- 



THE THREAT OF THE CITIES. 97 

The ill-will of the laborer toward the capitalist is 
greatly increased by periods of business depression. 
When so many mills are closed, and factories stand 
idle, it is hard for the worker to understand that his 
employers are no more to be blamed for such occasions 
than he himself; and that employers frequently, if not 
usually, do the very best they can for their hands, both 
in the matter of high wages and that of regular work. 
Most wage-workers live from hand to mouth. They 
must necessarily do so if, as economists say, the price 
of labor is measured by the lowest cost of living. In 
Massachusetts, the average expense of the laborer's 
household, in 1884, was greater by $196 than the earn- 
ings of the head of the family. This extra expenditure 
had to come from the earnings of the wife and children. 
No wonder only one in a hundred of them owned his 
own house ! When the mill stops, the supply of daily 
bread is cut off. The grocer gives credit for a while; 
after thai, if there is still no work to be had, pauper- 
ism. Work is hard to get at such times. Hard enough 
at any time. You will find idle laborers gathered in 
drinking-saloons and on street corners always talking 
on one inexhaustible theme — the oppression of labor 
by capital. 

In some cases the closing of mills has been justly and 
extremely provoking to employes. Those engaged in 
a certain line of manufacture, finding that more is being 
produced than can profitably be sold, meet together 
and form a pool, — that is, an agreement is made in ac- 
cordance with which some of the mills are closed, and 

panies abuse their men in this fashiou. In Boston, they are employed 
from twelve to twelve and one- half hours a day, out of which an 
hour is allowed for meals. 

7 



98 TEE TREE AT OF THE CITIES. 

suffered to stand idle until the " over-production " of 
such goods is checked and their price raised, and the 
owners of the idle mills are meanwhile paid out of the 
common purse for the losses incurred in closing them. 
Thus the owner's income continues as regularly as ever, 
although the factory doors are closed and its chimneys 
smokeless. But the working-people who were wont to 
depend on that mill for support — no one pays them for 
the silence of its looms and spindles. They must con- 
sume the little laid up for old age; they must com- 
mence the weary search for work elsewhere, and 
perhaps be reduced to destitution before they find it. 

The reader need not be reminded of the extent to 
which trades-unions and labor-unions and the strikes 
and disorders that have been promoted by them have 
broadened the breach between the workingmen and 
their employers. "Whether they have done anything to 
help the cause of labor may be doubtful. This much, 
however, is certain, that they have done very much to 
rouse and spread abroad among the working people a 
hatred for those classes whom they have been taught 
to call " oppressors." 

Listen to the workingman himself. We quote from 
the Iron Moulder's Journal for January and February, 
1885. It is not a socialist's paper, but a sober, conserva- 
tive labor organ ; neither are these articles selected 
carefully, but are taken from such numbers as were at 
hand, and fairly represent the spirit in which these 
matters are usually discussed in such circles : 

" One hundred workers, of as many occupations, will 
produce, working as they now work, treble the amount 
of all the necessities and comforts that one family will 
consume. How in God's name is it that they cannot 



THE THREAT OF THE CITIES. 99 

get enough to eat and wear ? What is it, and who is it 
that takes it all from them and grudgingly doles back 
to them just sufficient to keep body and soul together 
for not the allotted life of man, but for the time neces- 
sary to work and starve them into the grave ? " 

Again we read: "The working-classes, without dis- 
tinction of trades, have never, in the history of this 
country, suffered as they are now suffering. The year 
opens with labor, as a rule, almost completely at the 
mercy of capital, and capital gloating over its power to 
inflict the most cruel pangs upon labor, and exercising 
that power with a venom which will work inevitable 
retribution." 

These people are saturated with hatred for the whole 
class whom they term " the capitalists," a hatred that is 
often unreasoning and unreasonable, that is usually 
sweeping and intense. 

Now, city churches of the Protestant order are 
usually attended and sustained by persons of means 
and intelligence. It makes a man prosperous to be a 
Christian. The Protestant city churches are, therefore, 
to the laborer, the churches of the capitalist. He will 
have nothing to do with them. Their cushions and car- 
pets, their polished pews, stained windows, and pealing 
organs, as well as the rich garments of their prosperous 
congregations, were purchased, as he thinks, with money 
wrested from his toil-worn fingers. "What wonder that 
the invitations of the church ring in his ears like tones 
of hollow mockery, from which he turns away with a 
bitter heart ! This, after all, is the chief of the reasons 
why workingmen so rarely enter the door of a Protest- 
ant city church. They identify the churches with the 
capitalists, and the capitalists they count their enemies. 



100 THE THREAT OF THE CITIES. 

We have thus endeavored to show that the working- 
men of American cities are almost wholly shut out 
from the direct, and largely from the indirect influences 
of Protestant Cluistianity, by their foreign birth, train- 
ing, and religious traditions, and also by the peculiar 
nature of the relations between the laborer and the 
capitalist. If, now, the propositions with which the 
chapter opened are true; namely — that the body of 
Christian society cannot exist without the soul, and that 
so soon as Christian influence is withdrawn from even" 
a portion of society, that portion must forthwith lapse 
toward barbarism at the peril of the whole — if these 
are true, we should expect to see tokens of such a 
catastrophe in the American cities to-day, and such 
tokens are not lacking. 

Consider, for example, the matter of municipal gov- 
ernment. There is no need of enlarging upon the 
well-known fact that the governments of most of our 
important cities have for a long time been more or less 
rotten, and in some cases little more than gigantic sys- 
tems of fraud. It has been frequently observed that 
if it were not for the control of State legislation life and 
property would hardly be safe within them. And now 
that State legislatures are more and more coming 
under the control of the gangs from the cities it is 
time that sober men were awakening to the seriousness 
of the situation. But let us ask, what is the significance 
of such a state of things? What does it mean when 
New York aldermen are convicted of receiving bribes 
by the wholesale ; when Chicago mayors laugh at the 
laws of the land and snap their fingers in the face of 
those who urge their execution; when Cincinnati juries 
refuse to bring verdicts against criminals of undoubted 



THE THREAT OF THE CITIES. 101 

guilt ? Does it not mean that the people by whose suf- 
frages such officials have obtained their positions are 
either too ignorant or too immoral for self-govern- 
ment? 

Or consider, again, the drunkenness of the cities. 
The fearful statistics of the vice need no repetition. 
But it should not be forgotten that, unlike the churches, 
the drinking-saloons find the majority of their patrons 
among the worldngmen. A machine moulder recently 
said to the writer that he did not know a person in his 
trade who is not a drinking man. Drinking-saloons 
are both causes and effects of a city's degradation. 
They are effects; they come where poverty makes the 
home dingy, squalid, and unattractive. Day and night 
their doors are open, offering to the weary laborer 
retreats that, with their polished brass and stained 
glass, their light and warmth and cheery company, are 
immeasurably more attractive than his home. Apart 
from the drinking, the drinking-places have a strong 
fascination for their patrons; but the drink too is made 
the more enticing by the misery of the drinker. Ex- 
hausted by long hours of monotonous labor, or by a 
still more trying search for labor when " out of a job," 
the man has an irresistible craving for some stimulus 
which will lighten his heart and banish his sorrows for 
an hour. The relief is close at hand ; it is cheap and 
easy to take. That " at last it biteth like a serpent and 
stingeth like an adder," no one knows better than they 
who are most familiar with the ruin of it. But those 
that have the least are the most reckless. For the sake 
of relieving present discomfort they are willing to run 
the risk of future misery. You find the saloons thick- 
est in the poorest quarters. 



102 THE THREAT OF THE CITIES. 

Drinking- places are also causes of an inestimable deal 
of ruin. Besides actual drunkenness and the ghastly 
train of disease and crime that follows it, there is a 
moral poison about the grog-shops whose deadly power, 
though less frequently recognized, is scarcely less per- 
nicious. A hellish atmosphere pervades these places. 
They are full of profanity, indecency, and infidelity, 
the headquarters of political corruption and the hot- 
beds of crime. It would be very unjust to put them 
all on a level. Some are certainly much more respect- 
able than others ; but none of them are too good, and 
the tendency of ail is downward. These are the places 
where many of the workingmen most frequently meet 
and spend the greater part of their leisure. In halls 
connected with them labor unions and even building 
societies usually hold their sessions. 

According to the census of 1880 the city of Boston 
had one saloon for every 329 persons ; Cleveland, one 
for 192; New York, one for 179; Chicago, one for 171; 
and Cincinnati, one for 124, or one for every twenty-five 
families. This calculation does not include groceries or 
clrug-store3 where liquor is sold. The amount of drink- 
ing has been increasing from year to year. Do not 
these facts betoken a serious decline from the high 
plane of Christian civilization? 

Other evidence in the same direction appears in the 
increase of crime that the past thirty years have wit- 
nessed. In IS 50 Massachusetts had one prisoner to 
804 of the population. In 1880 she had one to 487. 
The criminal population in proportion to the whole 
population had nearly doubled in thirty years. The 
report of the prison commissioners for Massachusetts 
for 1884, shows that the entire number of arrests for 



THE THREAT OF THE CITIES. 103 

the year ending September 30, 1883, was 65,000, or 
one arrest for every twenty-nine of the population. 
Who these offenders were becomes evident when you 
read that Suffolk County, the county of Boston, had in 
proportion to its population more than twice the num- 
ber of prisoners of any other county, and five or six 
times as many as those counties that do not include 
large towns. 

The census makes an even worse showing than this 
for the whole country. Between 1870 and 1880, the 
population of the United States increased 30 per cent. 
Meantime crime in the United States increased 83.32. 
The superintendent of the police reports that in Chi- 
cago, in the year 1883, there were 37,187 arrests in that 
city, or one for every sixteen of the population. Of 
these, 159 were for murder, manslaughter, and intent 
to kill. The same sad story comes from every great 
city of the land, and one of its saddest features is the 
increase of what may be called seed crimes — those of 
the women and boys. Have we not here, too, ominous 
indications that the foundations of Christian civiliz- 
ation are rotting away beneath us ? 

The increase of poverty and pauperism is another 
token of the same thing. This was one of the heaviest 
chains that dragged old Borne down to the dust. The 
public statement was recently made that from one in 
twelve to one in fifteen of the inhabitants of Ohio re- 
ceived charitable aid in the course of a single winter. 

The Massachusetts State Board of Charities reports 
that in 1855 16 persons out of every 1,000 received aid; 
in 1860 the number was 28 ; in 1865, 36 ; in 1870, 45 ; in 
1 875, 121 ; in 1880 the number was not reported, but 
the expenditure was greater by 6 per cent, than in 1875. 



104: THE THREAT OF THE CITIES. 

In a paper read before the Congregational Club of 
New York City, Mrs. Josephine Shaw Lowell showed 
from the records of the City Charity Organization So- 
ciety that during three years two hundred and twenty 
thousand nine hundred and sixty-seven different per- 
sons, or about one-fifth of the entire population of that 
city, had asked for outside charity in one form or 
another. 

"The bitter cry of outcast London," which hag 
reached us across the sea, telling of hundreds of thou- 
sands in that most Christian of cities living in such 
filth, misery, ignorance, nameless vice, and unspeakabla 
degradation that all heathendom has not the like of it, 
shows the condition toward which our own poor folks 
are daily sinking. 

Another token of the same thing is seen in the dese- 
cration of the Christian Sabbath. Can we have Chris- 
tian civilization without a Sabbath day ? Granting that 
the Puritanic Sabbath is not adapted to the needs of 
our time, no one will deny that we need some sort of a 
Sabbath day, — a day, too, which in all essential ele- 
ments shall not be one whit inferior to that which our 
fathers handed down to U3. ^Where is the city in which 
the Sabbath day is not losing ground ? To the mass 
of the workingmen Sunday is no more than a holiday. 
The conception of it that they have brought with them 
from Europe has not been improved. It is a day for 
labor meetings, for excursions, for saloons, beer-gar- 
dens, base-ball games, and carousals. 

As a final token of the threatening dissolution of the 
fabric of Christian society, notice the nature of the 
new gospel for workingmen which many of the social- 
ists are preaching. Thi3 is not the place for the dis- 



THE THREAT OF THE CITIES. 105 

cussion of socialism. "We have no time to speak here 
of its wide and rapid spread in our own country and 
all over Europe, nor to consider how much of what is 
true and valuable may be mixed up with its teachings ; 
nor can we notice the extent to which it has influenced 
the thinking of multitudes who have not accepted its 
doctrines as a whole — an influence clearly seen in recent 
labor troubles, in the late elections, in the formation of 
the Anti-Poverty Society, etc. But the thing to be ob- 
served is the tendency of the doctrines that are at 
present advocated by its leaders. The International 
"Workingmen's Association, which is the principal social- 
istic society in this country and the world, makes it its 
direct purpose to promote the very thing which, as we 
have tried to show, is now threatening us, namely: the 
overthrow of the present system of society. These 
anarchists have most vague and varied notions of what 
should take the place of that which they wish to de- 
stroy. "Whenever they attempt to tell how the new 
society should be organized, they become involved in 
hopeless confusion. The one plan upon which they all 
agree is that of destruction. Many of the leaders go 
so far as to advocate the abolition with private property 
of religion, the State, the Church, and even the family. 
Give such men their way, not that they are likely to 
get it, and they would dash the proud temple of civil- 
ization with a single blow to the ground, and leave the 
world in as dense a darkness of barbarism as ever en- 
veloped our fathers of the Northland. It is hoped that 
these will not be regarded as the extravagant words of 
an alarmist. So surely as God is faithful, that Gospel 
which Jesus Christ brought to the poor must reach the 
poor, or else they, perishing in their blindness, will in- 



106 THE THREAT OF THE CITIES. 

volve all Christendom in common ruin. Are not these 
things already rolling in upon us like a mighty storm- 
cloud, — this increasing drunkenness and crime, this 
Sabbath desecration, this pauperism, this lawlessness 
and strife between rich and poor, this worse than 
heathen poverty and degradation? Do you answer, 
"Oh, well, but the cities have always been full of 
drunkenness, poverty, and disorder ; they are the fever- 
sores of the land " ? True : but do not forget that 
while the " fever-sores " grow redder and more angry, 
they are growing larger every day. It was a compara- 
tively small thing that the cities were vicious when they 
contained one-thirtieth of the people, but now they 
contain nearly one-fourth ; soon it will be one-third, 
one-half ; such fever-sores must not be ignored. 

That soil where weeds grow rankest is ever a fertile 
soil, capable also of yielding rich harvests of grain. If 
the towns of modern times furnish extraordinary facili- 
ties for the deadly work of the destroyer, at the same 
time they give no less advantage to the armies of sal- 
vation; they afford unrivalled fields for the triumphs of 
the Redeemer. God has rarely given His servants 
greater opportunities for doing good, and bringing 
forth much fruit unto His praise, than one can find in 
the troubled hearts of the great cities to-day: for the 
" sword of the Spirit " is never so mighty as when 
wielded amid the multitudes. 



CHAPTER IV. 

CHRISTIAN WORK IN LONDON — THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 

The whole world centres in London : thither all paths 
lead, and all lines of life converge. As it is the focus 
of the earth's population, the headquarters of polite 
society and political power, the emporium of trade and 
a chief seat of art, science, and literature — even so, Lon- 
don stands at the very thickest point of the great world- 
battle between good and evil. There the strongest 
concentration of Christian power is pitted against the 
most formidable foes to the faith and the life that are 
in Christ. There the most urgent problems of the age 
are pressing hardest, and there, as in no other place, 
are time and treasure devoted to their solution. A study 
of the methods of work adopted by the churches of the 
world's metropolis should, therefore, be helpful to those 
whom the same service employs in other parts of the 
field. 

Keligious work in London deals with a society which 
differs from that of our own cities widely and in many 
respects. The social gamut is broader than here, and 
the class distinctions more marked and more generally 
accepted. It is the city at once of the greatest wealth 
and the greatest poverty; in few places is living so 
costly, yet millions there have but a few shillings a week 
on which to live. Yv r e of America know of no such 

(107) 



108 CHRISTIAN WORE IN LONDON. 

•wide contrast — almost like that between men and beasts 
— as the one which separates the aristocratic top of 
English society, with its exquisite culture, vast wealth, 
and sumptuous luxury, from the miserable bottom. 
The city of the Thames appears like some strange 
woman whose haughty head flashes with diamonds, 
and whose upper garments are of silks and gems, while 
her worn and faded skirts drag tattered fringes through 
the mire and nlth of squalid streets. 

The fierceness of the straggle for existence is not yet 
so keenly felt in the new world. Want and over-crowd- 
ing have thu3 far forced comparatively few of our poor- 
est families to the degradation of the one-room life that 
so largely prevails in the lowest parts of London. 
There is much more alms-giving to be done there than 
here. They have more of the hungry, naked, and home- 
less needing their ministry; more need of asylums, 
hospitals, refuges, and houses of mercy. The dullness, 
drudgery, and hardships of their lives have stamped 
themselves in woful lines upon the sallow faces of the 
poor. During large portions of the year the murky 
ktmosphere admits but little sunshine, and the lot of 
the working-people is correspondingly sunless and 
leaden-hued; the church is, therefore, loudly called 
upon to pour whatever of brightness she is able into 
their cheerless homes and over their joyless lives. 

The vastness of the need of London is paralyzing to 
benevolence; the effort to relieve it seems hopeless. It 
is like trying to nil a bottomless pit, or casting handf uls 
of earth into the sea. The ocean of human misery 
swallows up everything it receives, and shows no 
change. Pauperism and the pauper-spirit greatly en- 
hance the difficulty of Christian work. There are mui- 



CHRISTIAN WORK IN LONDON 109 

titudes of poor wretches with whom religion is only a 
means of getting bread and butter. Nothing is more 
difficult than to win such people to Christian manliness. 

On the other hand, they do not share some of our 
greatest difficulties. As we have already seen, the 
foreign population is small in comparison with our own, 
and the Roman Catholic Church has not a strong foot- 
hold, and almost none among the lower classes of Eng- 
lish blood.* 

Other elements of the religious problem, and those 
the most important, our cities possess in common with 
those of Great Britain. In both countries the towns 
are growing with great rapidity, making the utmost 
diligence necessary that the appointments of religion 
keep pace with the increasing population. In both this 
growth is broadening the gulf between rich and poor, 
so that those parts which have the greatest need of 
churches are least able to build and sustain them. In 
both there are the same evil influences of factory life 
and bondage to machinery. Both have the same in- 
dustrial questions; the same struggle and jealousy be- 
tween labor and capital, and the same alienation of the 
working-people from the church, on the ground that it 
is an aristocratic institution conducted in the interest 
of the wealthy classes, and bent upon keeping them in 
subjection to the capitalists; and in both there is the 
same determination on the part of thousands of God's 
people to establish juster and more intimate relations 
between rich and poor, and to distribute the benefits 



* There are forty-seven Roman Catholic churches in London, 
against about sixteen hundred Protestant churches; hut the former 
are, on the average, of greater size. 



110 CHRISTIAN WORK IN LONDON. 

of Christian civilization more uniformly throughout 
society. 

Seeing that there are not less than sixteen hundred 
Protestant churches in London, and so many charitable 
institutions that an account of them, in which each is 
briefly described, nils a volume of a thousand pages,* 
any complete and careful description of the religious 
and benevolent work in that city is, of course, out of 
the question here. "We shall confine ourselves to a 
mere outline of general methods pursued by our Eng- 
lish brethren in church work, especially that intended 
for the benefit of working-people, and shall illustrate 
this by more extended notice of two or three such 
movements as have come under our own observation. 

We naturally begin with the Established Church. This 
body had in the metropolis, at last accounts, besides St. 
Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey, nine hundred 
and twenty churches, and a large number of mission 
halls and schools. 

The cathedral and the abbey differ from the churches 
in being unconnected with a parish, and in being con- 
trolled by a Dean and Chapter of Canons instead of a 
single clergyman, as well as in their vaster size. It 
used to be the case that these stately piles had very 
little to do with the practical religious work of the 
church, and the ecclesiastical offices connected with 
them " were considered little less than dignified sine- 
cures"; but the church of to-day aims to make them 
centres of spiritual life and power.f The chief ofiice 

* Charities Register and Digest, with an introduction by C. S. Loch, 
Secretary to the Counsel of the Charity Organization Society, London, 
1884. 

t See Work of the Church of England during the Present Century, 
by Rev. Canon Gregory. National Review, vol. ii. 



CHRISTIAN WOBK IN LONDON HI 

which they perform is that of supplying regular and 
very frequent religious services with the most eloquent 
of preachers and sweetest-voiced choirs. 

In St. Paul's there are six regular services on every 
day in the week except Sunday. One of these is a 
celebration of the holy communion, and two are choral 
services held in the body of the cathedral. The others 
are held in chapels and the crypt. On Sundays there 
are only four regular services with two celebrations of 
the holy communion. These services are varied on 
holy-days by additional sermons and special music. 
During Lent, for example, there are nine additional ser- 
mons weekly. The services in Westminster Abbey are 
somewhat less frequent, and the early morning celebra- 
tion of the communion occurs only on Sundays and 
holy- days. It is the custom during Lent and the Ad- 
vent to perform some great musical work in connection 
with the cathedral services, such as Bach's Passion 
Music, Handel's Messiah, or Spohr's Last Judgment. 
This custom is also followed in some of the parish 
churches. The singing in the cathedrals and larger 
parish churches is led by trained choirs of boys whose 
clear voices have a peculiar quality of exquisite, pas- 
sionless sweetness scarcely human and more like nute- 
notes, or the songs one would expect from the cherubs 
that hover in the mist of glory about Raphael's ma- 
donnas. The more difficult portions of the music are, 
of course, rendered by the choir alone, but the congre- 
gations heartily join in most of the singing. "We have 
no more important lesson to learn from our English 
cousins than that of congregational singing. 

Besides the regular and frequent services already 
mentioned, the cathedrals are used for great occasional 



112 CHRISTIAN WOBK IN LONDON 

gatherings such as Sunday-school festivals and anni- 
versaries of religious societies. 

The parish churches seldom hold less than three 
regular services on Sunday, one of which is usually 
designed for children, and nearly all of them have 
regular and frequent week-day services. Canon Greg- 
ory reports that of the nine hundred and twenty 
churches of the Establishment in London, two hundred 
and eighty-six have a daily service, five hundred and 
twenty-five celebrate the holy communion every week, 
and forty-seven every day, while only one hundred and 
twenty-two have no week-day services. 

Various means are used, apart from the regular ser- 
vices, to quicken and foster spiritual life among the 
churches. For the clergy there are quiet days, or retreats, 
as they are called. These are devotional meetings for 
spiritual refreshment extended through one or two 
days and conducted by men whom age and experience, 
as well a3 natural endowment, have given peculiar fit- 
ness for the service. 

Parochial missions, like that held in the winter of 
1885-6 in Trinity Church, New York, are becoming 
a marked feature in the life of the Church of England. 
In purpose and methods they closely resemble our own 
revival-meeting and protracted services. They aim "to 
rouse the careless and indifferent and to excite in- 
creased earnestness and devotion on the part of those 
who make a profession of religion." Several neighbor- 
ing churches usually unite in such a mission and spe- 
cial preparation is made for months before its services^ 
begin. Those most interested meet daily to pray for 
its success; the neighborhood is thoroughly canvassed, 
invitations to the extra meetings are widely scattered, 



CHRISTIAN WORK IN LONDON. 113 

the factories are visited and brief addresses given to 
the employes at the noon hour, and the meetings within 
the church are frequently preceded by brief open-air 
services without. 

Bible Glasses and Communicants' Classes are conducted 
by the majority of the churches, and most of them have 
annual confirmations, for which catechumens are pre- 
pared by a regular course of instruction lasting several 
weeks or even months. 

Societies or Guilds for the promotion of spiritual life 
are frequent both in the congregations of the Estab- 
lished Church and among nonconformists. One of 
these, which may be taken as an example, states that 
its object is " to promote the glory of God by individ- 
ual holiness and some useful service undertaken in His 
name." " Its members are bound together by the keep- 
ing of a simple, practical rule of life, by daily use of 
the guild prayer and by the meeting together twice 
every month, once at early celebration of the holy 
communion, and once for a devotional meeting." 
Many of the guilds have printed cards specifying a 
series of daily Bible-readings which all the members 
agree to follow. There are also guilds for boys, whose 
members agree to say their prayers kneeling every 
night and morning, to attend church at least once every 
Sunday, and when confirmed to " communicate " once 
a month. It is the practice to have " guardians " ap- 
pointed over sections of the boys' guilds, whose office it 
is to act as friends to the lads placed under their care. 
These men find large opportunities for useful service 
as counsellors in their young wards' affairs, both those 
of business and of pleasure; they attend the regular 
meetings of the guild, look up absentees, visit the sick 
8 



114: GHBISTIAN WOBK IN LONDON, 

and assist those who are in trouble. Similar guilds 
have been formed for women and girls. 

Most of the larger churches employ more than one 
clergyman, and some of them as many as three or four. 
Besides these, there are usually several missionaries, 
Bible-women, deaconesses, and trained nurses working 
in the parish under the superintendence of the rector. 

A strong movement has been made during the past 
few years in the direction of extending ecclesiastical 
work to the laity. London has an organization entitled 
The Lay-Helpers' Association, with an enrolled member- 
ship of above five thousand. These "]ay helpers," or 
tl lay readers," are employed as teachers of Bible-classes, 
superintendents of Sunday-schools, to hold services 
and preach in halls and unconsecrated buildings, and 
to engage in mission work of every sort. Many of the 
churches have also organized bands of visitors, among 
whom the poorer portion of their parishes is so dis- 
tributed that every family is allotted to some one of 
them. Visitors of this kind are often willing to accept 
fields of labor in other parishes than that of their own 
residence and in poor and distant portions of the 
town. 

One of the most important agencies employed both 
by the Church of England people and the Nonconform- 
ists in their work among the poor — the one which is 
usually first to take definite shape in commencing a 
mission of any kind — is a weekly gathering of poor 
women, called the mothers' meeting. It is conducted by 
some lady of superior ability, often assisted by other^ 
ladies and by a " Bible-woman." The latter belongs to 
the humbler class of society, and is, therefore, a more 
useful and welcome visitor to the homes of the poor 



CHRISTIAN WOBK IN LONDON 115 

than those of higher rank In their meetings the poor 
■women are taught to make and mend garments proper- 
ly; they have practical talks on cooking and nursing, 
and other domestic matters; suitable selections from 
books and periodicals are read to them; music is em- 
ployed to win and interest them, and religious instruc- 
tion is not neglected. Clothing-clubs are nearly always 
connected with the mothers' meetings; that is, ar- 
rangements by which flannel, prints, and garments 
may be bought in small quantities at wholesale prices. 
Sometimes coal and grocery clubs, conducted on the 
same principle, as well as penny banks, are added. 
Members are encouraged to deposit a few pence each 
week until they have accumulated enough to pay for 
some coveted garment or article of furniture. Poor 
mothers are very fond of these meetings, which often 
form a single bright spot in lives that are otherwise 
dark and dreary enough. Some of them are very large. 
The writer visited one which had about nine hundred 
members, and was obliged to hold its meetings in two 
sections. They are extremely useful in opening the 
hearts and homes of the poor to religious influences, 
and afford opportunities for certain sorts of instruction 
and help that the regular services of the Church could 
never supply. 

Another agency employed by the Church of England 
among the poor is The Girls' Friendly Society * This is 
one of the most useful and important branches of 
benevolent work in England, and aims to meet the needs 
of a class whose claims on the help and sympathy of 
the well-disposed are not surpassed by those of any 

* See account of this society by the Countess of Shrewsbury, enti- 
tled Freveutiou. Nineteenth Century, Dec., 1885. 



116 CHRISTIAN- WORK IN LONDON. 

other. The movement was commenced about ten years 
ago, under the auspices of the late Archbishop of Canter- 
bury and Mrs. Tait. It enjoys the patronage of Her 
Majesty the Queen, the Princess of Wales, and other 
members of the royal family, as well as the Archbishops 
of York and Canterbury. Although of national extent, 
it aims to work in each parish in connection with the 
parish church. Its membership numbers nearly one 
hundred and twenty-five thousand women and girls of 
every rank in England alone, and its operations are ex- 
tended to Scotland, Ireland, and the colonies. Its aims, 
as stated in the Constitution, are : 

" 1st. To bind together in one society, ladies as associ- 
ates, and working - girls as members for mutual help 
(both religious and secular), for sympathy and for 
prayer. 

"2d. To encourage purity of life, dutifulness to 
parents, faithfulness to employers, and thrift. 

" 3d. To provide the privileges of the society for its 
members wherever they may be by giving them an in- 
troduction from one branch to another." 
/ The following are the central rules : 

"1st. Associates to be members of the Church of 
England (there is no such restriction as to members), 
and the organization to follow as much as possible that 
of the Church, being diocesan, ruridecanal, and parochial. 

" 2d. Associates and members to contribute annually 
to the funds : the former not less than 2s. 6d. a year, 
the latter not less than 6d., the members' payment to go 
to the central fund. 

" 3d. No girl that has not borne a virtuous character 
to be admitted as a member." 

"The third role," says Lady Shrewsbury, "is the 



CHRISTIAN WORE IN LONDON. 117 

hinge on which the whole society hangs. The advan- 
tages and privileges afforded to the members are to 
make virtue easier and to act as a fence between them 
and the pitfalls of vice. That numberless and strong 
fences are necessary is certain. And that these fences 
must surround our girls from an early age is, without 
doubt, a necessity of the age. The Girls' Friendly Soci- 
ety recognizes this, and endeavors within the limited 
powers of its comparatively few workers to supply this 
want. At eight years old little girls are received as 
candidates and trained to be dutiful to their parents, 
and modest in conduct; and at twelve they are passed 
into the society as members, in which condition they re- 
main until marriage gives them a husband's protection." 

The privileges of the society are these : 

"1st. Every girl has a right to go to the associate as a 
friend for sympathy, advice, and help." 

In case of emigration, she is watched over until she 
reaches her destination, being safely placed upon her 
vessel when leaving England, and received at the docks 
by special agents when she lands in America or the 
colonies. Emigration is not, however, encouraged by 
the society. 

2d. There are " lodges " for these girls in the metrop- 
olis, and most of the large towns whither they flock for 
employment. "These lodges take the place of home, 
and are under the supervision of a lady superintend- 
ent or matron who * mothers ' the inmates." Charges 
for board are made proportionate to the earnings of 
the inmates. Games and amusements are provided, 
instruction is given, friendships are formed, and a 
home-life cultivated whose attractions are strong enough 
to keep them from the temptations without. 



118 CHRISTIAN WORK IN LONDON. 

No element in the society's life and work is found to 
be more useful and is more highly appreciated than 
that of the attachments that grow up between the girls 
and the ladies who care for them. And another feature 
scarcely less valuable is that of the deep and lasting 
friendships that are formed among the members. 

The society extends its influence into the various oc- 
cupations where girls are employed, and manages the 
different branches of its work by means of eight sepa- 
rate departments. There is a department for members 
in professions and business, which includes work among 
school-mistresses, students, pupil-teachers, shop-girls, 
and dress-makers; a department for members in mills 
and factories; for candidates from workhouses and 
orphanages; for members in service (domestic servants 
cannot, however, belong to the society or attend its 
meetings without the permission of their mistresses) ; a 
department for lodges and lodgings; a department for 
literature (which publishes a journal for associates, and 
two magazines for members, besides books and pam- 
phlets) ; a department for sick members, and homes of 
rest; and a department for domestic economy and in- 
dustrial training, which trains children for domestic 
service, and instructs members by lecture and other- 
wise to earn their own living. 

The Church of England performs many grateful 
services for the poor by the hands of deaconesses and 
sisters of mercy. The sisters live in communities, take 
vows of celibacy, and usually make the devotional life 
the chief object of their seclusion from the world. 
They usually belong to the extreme high-church party. 
A deaconess, on the other hand, is a person set aj^art 
by a bisho]3 for religious work. The bearers of this 



CHRISTIAN WORK IN LONDON. H9 

office take no vows, may be married or single, and 
need not necessarily live in a religious community. 
Many, if not most, of them are of the low-church party. 

Both classes are largely engaged in Christian and 
benevolent work, and are frequently employed in con- 
nection with the parish church under the direction of 
its incumbent. These women, protected by a distinct- 
ive dress, visit the low parts of the city without danger, 
penetrate the dark and loathsome dwellings of the very 
poorest people, and search out the destitute sick, to 
whom their ministries bring the greatest comfort. 
Mothers are taught to take proper care of their children; 
hints and instruction as to nursing are given to the 
friends and relatives of invalids, and free nurses are 
supplied in cases of extreme need. The sisters and 
deaconesses, being trained nurses, are able, by their 
constant presence in the sick-chamber, to do more for 
the sufferer, especially when he is in destitute circum- 
stances, than any physician could do through occasional 
visits. 

In England, as in our own land, it is not easy to se- 
cure Sunday-school teachers who are really efficient 
and competent to instruct the children placed under 
their charge. Here, too, the services of women of this 
order are extremely valuable and effective. They also 
conduct week-day schools, ragged-schools, and indus- 
trial schools. Orphanages have been established and 
maintained by them, as well as temporary homes for 
missionaries, houses of mercy for penitents, day nurser- 
ies,- refuges, homes for incurables and for convalescents. 
There is a party of sisters which appears every day at 
noon among the rough laborers, at the docks of East 
London, bringing trucks loaded with food and hot 



120 CHRISTIAN WORE IN LONDON. 

coUee, which is sold at nominal prices. Thus they hope 
to win away patronage from the diinking-places that 
cluster thickly about the dock-gates, They are also 
largely engaged in hospital and infirmary work. Sev- 
eral hospitals for women and children have been es- 
tablished by them, and the nursing at other hospitals 
is entirely under their charge. 

There is a notable tendency among earnest people of 
every name and order in England to establish as many 
points of contact as possible between the church and 
the daily life of the people. This tendency is illustrated 
by the extent to which friendly societies and worhingmen's 
dabs are encouraged. It had formerly been the case, 
and is still, to some extent, that such institutions held 
their meetings in halls connected with public-houses, 
which the publicans were glad to provide, rent free, for 
the sake of their presence and incidental patronage. 
This practice is common in the United States also. 
Such institutions have, in many cases, been provided 
with quarters of their own largely through the dona- 
tions of benevolent men, and under the auspices of the 
-^churches. Mission-halls, chapels, school-rooms, and 
other buildings of the sort have also been thrown open 
to their use. It is a common thing for gentlemen of high 
standing to belong to them, and to attend their meet- 
ings. And they frequently elect prominent clergymen 
and others to the office of president. 

One of the great national sins of England is that of 
intemperance. In this respect there is a marked con- 
trast between the British and continental cities. The 
diinking-places in London are more numerous, are 
usually of a lower class, and deal in liquors that are 
more injurious than those most commonly drank at 



CHRISTIAN WORK IN LONDON. 121 

Paris and Berlin;* drunkenness is more frequent. In 
the dingy, foul, crowded, poverty-stricken parts, where 
human existence is fullest of misery, the gin-palaces 
stand in tawdry splendor on every corner, like shining 
parasites fattened on the life-blood of the poor. Per- 
haps there is no more drunkenness among men than 
some of our own cities exhibit, and there is certainly 
more excuse for it, if miserable homes, costly food, and 
cheap drink can constitute an excuse. But the drunk- 
enness of women, that may be seen in the poorer 
parts of London, is peculiarly shocking to a stranger. 
Women of the lower classes appear to be almost as fre- 
quent patrons of the gin-shops as their husbands. f As 
one passes the open doors of the public-houses any 
summer night in East London, he can see large num- 
bers of them drinking at public bars, with babies in 
their arms, and small children hanging about their 
skirts. Since drunkenness is even more demoralizing 
in the case of the woman and mother than in that of 
the father of the household, its ill-effects among the 
London poor are simply incalculable. Corresponding 
with the extent and virulence of the disease have been 
the strength of the remedies put forth to meet it. The 
temperance movement is remarkably powerful through- 
out all England; so much so that official statistics show 
an encouraging diminution of drunkenness during the 
last few years, as well as a decrease of government 
revenues from taxes upon intoxicants. Among the 

* We do not mean to imply that either of those cities is a model in 
this respect. 

+ This may be, to some extent, due to the custom of employing 
bar-maids. The presence of a woman in a drinking-place makes it 
a shade more respectable for other women to visit. 



122 CHRISTIAN WORK IN LONDON 

working-classes, with whom the movement has taken 
its firmest hold, multitudes of temperance societies 
have sprung up. Many of these combine with their 
temperance work a scheme of insurance against sick- 
ness and death, and are known as temperance friendly 
societies. 

AH. religious work among the lower classes is shot 
through and through with temperance. In the case of 
many, sin of every sort has become so interwoven and 
identified with the drink passion that this is the sin of 
sins to them, and they talk about the Christian life as 
though they considered it to be chiefly a deliverance 
by the grace of God from the power of strong drink, 
combined with a commission to work for the salva- 
tion of others from the same bondage. Many of the 
churches, both those of the Establishment and of Non- 
conformists, employ reformed men as special temper- 
ance missionaries to devote themselves exclusively to 
this line of work. 

The Church of England Temperance Society has its 
branches in almost every parish of the English cities. 
It includes a Woman's Union and a Juvenile Union. 
It publishes several papers and conducts special depart- 
ments for police-court work, for railway work, for army 
work, for work among cabmen, 'busmen, and others; in 
connection with this and kindred movements among 
the Nonconformists multitudes of cocoa and coffee 
taverns have been established throughout the whole 
country, twelve hundred and forty-four of which are 
now known to be in operation. 

Brave work has been and is being done in England, 
in battling with the fury of the social evil. The life- 
struggle of a crowded city like London greatly aggra- 



CHRISTIAN WORK IN LONDON 123 

vates and inflames the temptations consequent upon 
such passions as flesh is heir to. For a young man to 
get foothold in any line of business requires a long, 
hard struggle. Marriage is late and uncertain. The 
horrors of the one-room life blot out all sense of mod- 
esty in early childhood from thousands of daughters of 
the poor, and want continually tempting them to pros- 
titution and finding the defences against such tempta- 
tion weakened or destroyed, fills the street with fallen 
women. The work of the White Gross movement is well 
known in the United States, and many branches of that 
organization have already been planted upon our shores. 
It is not a denominational movement, but includes 
in its ranks men of all sects and parties. There is a 
Church of England Purity Society, which works in the 
same line and % is practically the same thing. These 
societies aim to promote purity among men, a chival- 
rous respect for womanhood, prevention of the young 
from contamination, rescue work, and a higher tone of 
public opinion. Their membership is confined to men 
above eighteen years of age and their meetings are for 
men only. 

In order to show how these and other branches of 
Christian activity are woven together in the life of the 
most energetic London churches, a brief account will 
be given of the work of two or three who are directly 
dealing with the problem of reaching the working- 
classes. 

Our first example is St. Anne's, Limehouse. This 
church is situated far down in the East End, a part of 
London which visitors and the more prosperous portion 
of the Londoners themselves never see unless, perhaps, 
from the windows of a railway carriage as their train 



124 CHRISTIAN WORK IN LONDON. 

hurries them over a long viaduct that crosses that 
region. 

The parish, no part of which is more than ten min- 
utes' walk from the church, embraces a population of 
something more than ten thousand. It is composed 
chiefly of artisans, lodging-house keepers, sailors and 
dock laborers, many of the latter being very poor. 
There are about twenty manufacturers and tradesfolk 
of the wealthier sort, but with these exceptions persons 
so engaged in that neighborhood reside far away from 
their place of business. There are also two streets of 
small shop-keepers of the lower-middle class. The 
church has on its parochial staff four resident clergy- 
men, one Scripture-reader, ninety-two Sunday-school 
teachers, fourteen day-school teachers, choir-master, 
organist, twenty choir-men, forty choir-boys, two trained 
nurses, two mission women, twelve district visitors, and 
one temperance missionary. The choir-boys are paid 
one penny for each week-day attendance. 

The church has a seating capacity of thirteen hun- 
dred. There are three mission-rooms, the first of which 
seats four hundred, the second eighty, the third forty. 
Four services are held in the church on every Sunday : 
holy communion at eight a.m., morning service at 
eleven a.m., followed twice in the month by a second 
celebration of the holy communion. At three o'clock 
a congregational Bible-class is held, there are baptisms 
at four, and evening prayer at seven. Two services, 
morning and evening prayer, are held in the church on 
every day in the week and twice daring the week — the 
evening service includes a sermon ; besides which there 
are many extra services on feast days and other special 
occasions. 



CHRISTIAN WORK IN LONDON. 125 

Mission-room No. 1 has a Sunday-school on Sunday 
morning, another in the afternoon, and a ragged Sun- 
day-school in the evening, besides Bible-classes for 
young men and for young women. During the four 
Monday evenings of the month the room is used for 
the successive meetings of three communicants' guilds : 
one for adults, one for young men, and one for young 
■women, and a branch of the Church of England Purity 
Society. Tuesday afternoon there is a mothers' meet- 
ing in this place ; Tuesday evening, a sewing- class for 
girls ; Wednesday, a second mothers' meeting, and 
Wednesday evening a ragged-school Band of Hope. 
Thursday evening there is a Sunday-school Band of 
Hope, followed by an adult temperance meeting, and Fri- 
day evening the room is occupied by a friendly society. 

Mission-room No. 2 has a Bible-class for men on 
every Sunday, with an enrolled membership numbering 
one hundred and sixteen, and an average attendance of 
fifty-five, and a class about half as large for girls. At 
the same place there are held, in the course of the week, 
a mothers' meeting, a men's night-school, a lady's Bible- 
reading, a children's service, a Gospel service, a woman's 
Bible-class, a social evening for boys, a social evening 
for girls, including a working-party, library, penny 
bank, etc., and a general prayer-meeting. All these 
meetings are conducted by deaconesses from Mildmay 
Park Institute. 

In connection with mission-room No. 3 there are 
out-of-door services on every Sunday evening from 
June to October, followed by mission services within. 
There is also a special meeting for boys on Sunday 
afternoon, and in the course of the week there are two 
social evenings for men, and one for girls. 



126 CHRISTIAN WORK IN LONDON. 

At the same time the National School * buildings are 
utilized by this most active church for the following 
meetings : — Sunday morning a Sunday-school for boys, 
Sunday afternoon a Sunday-school for girls; also four 
Bible-classes, one for men, one for young men, one for 
lads, and one for girls. There is in this building a 
weekly teachers' meeting, a penny savings bank, and a 
library for all the Sunday-schools. In addition to all 
these, there are regular weekly services held three times 
every week in neighboring factories during the dinner 
hour. 

Every year this church has confirmations, for which 
preparatory instruction is given to catechumens in nine 
weekly classes during three months preceding that ser- 
vice. In the way of guilds and societies, there are 
reported a missionary society, a communicants' society, 
a maternity society, a Church of England temperance 
society, three Bands of Hope, a Sunday-school and mis- 
sionary-box society. In the line of recreations, etc., 
the church provides weekly social evenings for factory- 
hands, a sewing-class for the ragged-school, temper- 
ance entertainments, meetings for boys and young men, 
quarterly teas for young men's and young women's 
Bible-classes, cricket, football, and swimming clubs, 
country walking-parties, annual excursions for the choir 
and Sunday-school, and confirmation anniversaries. 

Another large East London church, St. Mary's, White- 
chapel, has on its parochial staff a rector and three 
assistant curates, one Scripture -reader, and three city 
missionaries, one of whom works exclusively among the 



* The "National Schools" are church schools. The "Board 
Schools" are those supported by the State. 



CHRISTIAN WORE IN LONDON 127 

Jews; a mission-woman, a nurse for sick poor, and five 
licensed lay readers, besides church - wardens, choir, 
Sunday-school teachers, etc. Open-air meetings are 
held five evenings during the week throughout six 
months of the year. It has a stone pulpit built into 
the exterior wall of the church, from which wayside 
hearers may be addressed. The list of clubs, societies, 
entertainments, and enterprises of various sorts that it 
sustains is even more extensive than that already 
quoted. It includes a clothing- club in five branches, 
with a membership of eight hundred and thirty-nine; 
a sick and burial society, cricket-club, swimming- club, 
lawn-tennis-club, young men's association, branches 
of the Church of England Temperance Society, both 
for adults and children, with weekly meetings and 
entertainments ; a girls' friendly society, a children's 
country-holiday fund, a destitute children's dinner so- 
ciety, an emigration fund, an oriental coffee-house, an 
industrial home, a registry for domestic servants, a 
tonic sol-fa class, a chess class, a parish magazine with 
a circulation of seven hundred, Christmas treats, sum- 
mer excursions, concerts, magic - lantern exhibitions, 
soup-kitchen, and branches of the White Cross Army. 
There is another East London church, whose work 
being somewhat exceptional in character, is worthy of 
special attention and study. This is St. Jude's, White- 
chapel. Its parish is occupied by workingmen, small 
shop-keepers, and clerks, and, although the region may 
not be quite so miserable as that which surrounds St. 
Anne's, the fact of its proximity to "Bag Fair " and the 
famous " Petticoat Lane," that once was, is evidence 
enough that it is none too respectable. The church is 
not a large one, and except for the character of its 



128 CHRISTIAN WORK IN LONDON. 

vicar, would not be of special importance. The latter, 
the Rev. Samuel A. Bametfc, is one of the most radical 
members of the broad-church party, and a well-known 
writer on social and industrial questions. He is a man 
of great personal attractions, of commanding influence, 
is bold in his thinking, positive in his convictions, and 
extremely radical in many of his positions. No one 
can doubt the depth and genuineness of his sympathy 
with the poor, for whose relief he spends his life in 
plans and labors along somewhat original lines. 

In the regular work of St. Jude's church some of the 
more common and generaEy approved methods of re- 
ligious effort are discarded. They declined, for ex- 
ample, to join in the mission which was conducted by 
other churches in the vicinity on the ground that such 
movements are of doubtful value, often productive of 
incidental evil so great as to more than counterbalance 
the good that results from them, and also on the ground 
that they foster a type of religion in which the people 
are already well instructed, namely, a religion of senti- 
ments and fears, while they fail to develop what the 
poor stand in greatest need of, — a religion of manliness 
and culture. The common plan of visiting the poor 
in their homes is not extensively practiced by the peo- 
ple of St. Jude's, for it is held that such visits tend to 
rob them of their self-respect. 

Among the special features of the work in this place 
the following are noted : 

1st. The church is open every day, from 11 a.m. until 
5 p.m., " for those who would pray, read, and think in 
quietness." 

2d. The regular Sunday morning service is broken 
into three short services by slight pauses between the 



CHRISTIAN WORK IN LONDON. 129 

morning prayer, sermon, and litany, because " after a 
week's work many cannot rise until late in the day and 
to few is it given to be able to restrain their thoughts 
for more than half an hour at a time." 

3d. The church is made attractive at all times by the 
presence of flowers and appropriate works of art. A 
bright Venetian mosaic and a beautiful drinking foun- 
tain with suitable inscriptions adorn its exterior front. 

4th. There is a so-called " worship hour " after Sun- 
day-evening service which seems to be mainly devoted 
to music, meditation, and silent prayer. 

5th. Unusual attention is given to matters of secular 
instruction. Night-schools are held throughout the 
week ; there are special classes in such subjects as 
French, science, and violin; a popular-ballad class meets 
once a week. During the summer, various classes take 
the form of rambling clubs and devote their excursions 
to the study of geology, botany, and architecture. 

6th. There is a lending-library with about a thousand 
volumes which are kept in constant circulation. 

7th. But the feature in the work at St. Jude's which 
is most unique of all is the institution of an annual free 
exhibition of fine art for the benefit of the working-peo- 
ple of East London. It is held in the rooms of the 
school-building which stands closely beside the church, 
is open every year at Easter and continues open day 
and evening seven days in the week for about one 
month. The pictures and other objects displayed are 
of a very high class and loaned from the best houses 
in London. This is held to be a matter of extreme im- 
portance and indeed essential to the purpose for which 
the exhibition was inaugurated, its object being to ele- 
vate the taste, and through the taste, the whole nature 
9 



130 CHRISTIAN WORK IN LONDON. 

of the people by constantly placing before them what 
is really excellent until familiarity has taught them to 
know it so well that they can instantly choose between 
the good and vicious. This year the exhibition con- 
tained some five hundred paintings, several of which 
had been leading pictures at different times in the 
Ro}- al Academy. It was pronounced the finest exhibi- 
tion of modern paintings that could be seen at the time 
in the whole metropolis. An elaborate catalogue, con- 
taining not only the titles of the pictures, but simple, 
well-worded comments and explanations, with extracts 
from Mr. Buskin and the poets, was sold for a penny. 
There was also a number of ladies and gentlemen in 
constant attendance to act, not only as custodians of 
the valuable property, but also as guides and inter- 
preters to the poorer and more inexperienced visitors. 
The exhibition was first opened in the spring of 1880, 
and the number of visitors that year was about twelve 
thousand. With each successive season it has become 
more popular, until last year, when it was visited by 
fifty-six thousand people, three-fourths of whom were 
mechanics, artisans, and laborers. Regarding this en- 
terprise Mr. Barnett writes : 

"The inability of those who constitute the majority 
of the nation to understand even the language of some 
of the best modern teachers, reveals the condition to 
which society has been brought in the pursuit of wealth. 
It also suggests means of reform. The people must be 
made familiar with pictures and books. They must 
learn the language of thought, as language is always 
learned by familiarity. Galleries and libraries should 
thus be conveniently placed and opened at fitting times. 
Sunday cannot be an unfit day on which to become 



CHRISTIAN WORK IN LONDON. 131 

familiar with the language of pictures and books, — the 
language through which God has often come to men." * 

Another institution deserves our notice in this con- 
nection, which, although quite distinct from St. Jude's 
church, stands beside it, and is undoubtedly an out- 
growth of the life and thinking of its vicar. This is 
styled The University Extension Society. It is composed 
of a dozen or twenty young men, including churchmen, 
nonconformists, and even unbelievers, all of them uni- 
versity graduates, who, feeling the grievousness of the 
evils springing from the growing gulf between rich and 
poor, are bent upon doing something, all that is within 
their power, toward bridging it over. They have ac- 
cordingly come down to live among the people of the 
East End, have joined workingmen's clubs, and have 
endeavored in every possible way to identify themselves 
with the life of that portion of the town which is almost 
exclusively occupied by the children of toil. 

Their house of residence, called the "Settlement," 
closely resembles an ordinary college building in its 
internal arrangements. There is a comfortable dining- 
room, a spacious and attractive drawing-room, there 
are several convenient class-rooms, and there are small 
parlors and tiny bedrooms for about twenty men. In 
connection with the settlement there is a good-sized 
audience-room, called Toynbee Hall, where courses of 
free lectures for workingmen are given by eminent men 
of science and letters every winter. The members of 
the society are most of them engaged in the law-courts 
and in other parts of the city during the day. In the 



* For other examples of parochial work see Official Year-Book of 
tlie Church of England, London, 1886, pp. 46-55. 



132 CHRISTIAN WORE IN LONDON. 

evening, besides taking a part in their various clubs, 
they teach selected classes of young men in their own 
rooms or the class-rooms at the settlement. The mem- 
bers of these classes are brought together in weekly 
social evenings in the great drawing-room. Lady 
friends from the West End are generally present upon 
these occasions, and contribute music and selected read- 
ings as well as their society to the entertainment; and 
there has been an effort to secure also the presence of 
the wives and sisters of the workingmen. But this, it 
is said, has not yet been successfully accomplished, 
much to the annoyance and perplexity of the young 
reformers. The movement, while not distinctively re- 
ligious, is far from being irreligious. Its primary aim 
seems to be to extend to those whose hard, laborious 
life-struggle has entirely cut them off from it, some of 
the fruits of Christianity which take the shape of in- 
tellectual and aesthetic culture. 

The organization is but a new one, and the methods 
thus far necessarily tentative arid experimental. There 
i is a growing conviction among its members, as we are in- 
y formed, that little can be done to help the workingmen 
without the powerful alliance of religion. Sects and 
sectarianism stand in their way, being there and every- 
where the greatest practical hindrance to effective 
Christian work. Some of them at least are, therefore, 
driven for relief to the extreme position of those who 
with Mr. Bamett would make the Church "truly na- 
tional" — "the nation organized for worship," and every 
Englishman — be he Churchman, Nonconformist, Turk 
or infidel — a member of it, with a voice in the control 
of its affairs. 

A style of work in some, though not in all respects, 



CHRISTIAN WORK IN LONDON. 133 

similar to that of the " University Extension Society," 
is "being done "by a colony of Oxford graduates, whose 
headquarters are known as the Oxford House, St. An- 
drew Parish, Bethnal Green. These men are usually 
students of divinity who, having taken their degree, 
spend a year in Christian work in London before ordi- 
nation, as a sort of post-graduate course of prepara- 
tion for their life-service. The region is one of the 
most miserable in the whole city. Besides engaging in 
house-to-house visitation and general mission work, 
these Oxford men have organized a number of clubs 
for workingmen and for boys, which differ from the 
ordinary workingmen's clubs in being strictly temper- 
ance organizations. They have also conducted a lecture 
bureau, designed to furnish free lectures of instructive 
character for workingmen's clubs. In prosecuting this 
enterprise they have been able to secure the services of 
about twenty lecturers during the past winter, mostly 
Oxford men and specialists, and they have sent each of 
them out to address audiences of workingmen three or 
four times in the course of the last winter. 

The neighborhood of Bethnal Green is occupied by 
multitudes of poor artisans that are engaged in various 
kinds of handicraft. The competition of machines and 
factories has of late years made their slow and labo- 
rious methods of work extremely unremunerative ; in 
consequence of which many are reduced to penury. 
Yet most of the productions of these people have the 
peculiar beauty, strength, and excellence of hand-made 
goods. Hundreds of the original Huguenot family 
which live there are, for example, still engaged in weav- 
ing with hand-looms in their homes, the heavy, old- 
fashioned, costly silks of former times. The Oxford 



134 CHRISTIAN WORK IN LONDON. 

men, feeling that if the character of this work were 
more generally known, and its excellence understood 
and appreciated, there would be a ready market for it, 
have set on foot arrangements for the great industrial 
exhibition of the manufactures of East London, the 
so-called " East Enderies," which was recently opened 
by Lady Eosebery, assisted by Lord Lome, under most 
favorable auspices and with every promise of success. 
In this way they hope to provide a ready sale for the 
manufactures of their poor neighbors, and thus to pro- 
mote greater prospeiity among them. 



CHAPTEK V. 

CHRISTIAN WORK IN LONDON — DISSENTING CHURCHES — OTHER 
MOVEMENTS. 

In discussing the work of the dissenting churches in 
London we shall find that many of the methods em- 
ployed by them are so similar to those already men- 
tioned that they need no further description. It should 
not, however, on that account be inferred that they are 
practiced with less earnestness and success by the non- 
conformists than by churchmen. 

The dissenting churches have about seven hundred 
places of worship, of all sorts, in London. Three hun- 
dred and thirty of these, most of which are quite small, 
belong to various bodies of Wesleyans and Methodists; 
one hundred and twelve to Independents or Congrega- 
tionalists; ninety-nine to Baptists; sixty-seven to Pres- 
byterians; and eighty or ninety to a variety of smaller 
sects and to undenominational missions. 

The ordinary services of these churches are arranged 
and conducted in all essential respects like those of our 
own country. There are, however, some slight differ- 
ences between their ways and ours, which are perhaps 
worth noticing. The religious services are, if we are 
not mistaken, considerably more frequent than is usual 
among us. It is common to have two prayer-meetings 
on Sunday, besides two regular church services and 
Sunday-school. Not a few of the churches have two 

(135) 



136 CHRISTIAN WORK IN LONDON-. 

sessions of the Sunday-school, the first coming before 
church in the morning, the second in the afternoon, 
and even have the same officers, pupils, and teachers at 
both sessions. Their Sunday-schools, as a rule, have 
more the character of mission schools than ours, and 
are usually not attended by the children of the best 
families in the church. Yet some schools are conducted 
on the American plan. Many churches have a separate 
service for children going on at the same time with the 
regular morning service. It is a common plan to hold 
two prayer-meetings on week-days ; one, perhaps, on 
Monday and one on Saturday evening; and a more 
formal service with preaching on Wednesday or Thurs- 
day evening. 

The order of worship varies considerably in different 
churches, but most of them agree in certain particulars : 
there are usually two Scripture lessons, one from the 
Old Testament and one from the New; there is almost 
always more singing than is common with us; morning 
service in many of the churches includes, at least, four 
hymns and a chant, or three hymns, an anthem, and a 
chant. It was noticed in two prominent Congrega- 
tional churches in London that, during a morning ser- 
vice followed by a brief communion service, there were 
sung, always by choir and congregation together, an 
anthem, two chants, and five hymns. A brief prayer 
often immediately precedes the sermon. It is a uni- 
versal custom among the English people upon taking 
their seat in church or any religious meeting to bow 
the head or kneel in silent prayer, and also to remain 
for a moment in the attitude of devotion after the clos- 
ing benediction. The pews are supplied with Bibles as 
well as hymn-books, and the majority of the congrega- 



CHRISTIAN WORK IN LONDON 137 

tion follow the preacher in his reading with open Bible, 
and look up the text. 

The celebration of the Lord's Supper is rather more 
frequent in most of the churches than is common with 
us, the event occurring as often as once and even twice 
each month. In the latter case there is usually one 
celebration after a morning, and one after an evening 
service, in order that it may suit the convenience of all 
to be present at least once every month. They have a 
pleasant custom of seating the deacons upon the plat- 
form about the pastor during the celebration of the 
feast. There is also a system of tickets by which the 
members of the church indicate their presence at the 
sacramental service. Each member present deposits a 
dated and numbered ticket in the collection-box with 
the offering for the poor. This does not mean that no 
member can commune without a ticket ; the ticket is 
simply an indication of his presence, and enables the 
church clerk to keep a roll of attendance — a very useful 
thing, especially where the congregation includes a 
large number of poor and obscure persons.* Strangers 
are most cordially welcomed to the Lord's table in all 
the churches, the Baptist as well as others, and are even 
invited to assist in the sacramental service. 

Most of the methods of evangelistic work carried on 
by the dissenting churches closely resemble our own. 
They have prayer-meetings, inquiry-rooms, Gospel ser- 
vices, and protracted meetings precisely like ours. Al- 
though the music used for regular church services is 

* We cannot say that this is a universal custom, but only that it is a 
common one. We trust our readers will not forget that we claim in 
none of these matters to speak with authority except within the range 
of a very limited experience. 



138 CHRISTIAN WORK IN LONDON. 

somewhat unfamiliar, in evangelistic meetings of all 
kinds one invariably hears the well-known songs intro- 
duced by Mr. Bliss and Mr. Sankey; and, much as 
these simple melodies may be despised on artistic 
grounds, they certainly have a remarkable adaptation 
to the work for which they were designed, that of 
evangelistic services among common people. They are 
used in such meetings not only in London and all over 
England and Scotland, but at the McAll mission in 
Paris and the Young Men's Christian Association in 
Berlin. 

Having premised thus much in general, brief descrip- 
tion will be given of the work of two or three dissent- 
ing churches which deal directly with the problem of 
evangelizing the masses. 

The first example is that of the Highbury Quadrant 
Congregational Church, of which Dr. Llewellyn D. Bevan, 
formerly of New York and lately removed to Melbourne, 
Australia, was pastor at the time it was visited by the 
writer. This church stands in the midst of a rather 
prosperous district in one of the newer parts of Lon- 
don. The comfortable-looking houses about it are oc- 
cupied by people of the middle and upper-middle 
classes. There are poorer neighborhoods, however, 
within a few minutes' walk, inhabited by working-peo- 
ple. The church is but eight years old, and its com- 
modious house of worship has been completed only 
about five years. Yet, although so young, it already 
has two thriving missions. The relation of one of these 
missions to the parent church gives an extremely valu- 
able hint at the way religious work may be successfully 
sustained and vigorously pushed in the poorest neigh- 
borhoods. 



CEBI8TIAN WOBE IN LONDON. 139 

The mission church of Britannia Kow is nearly a mile 
and a half away from the parent church. It stands 
in a narrow lane off from a portion of a great North 
London thoroughfare, to which its abandoned character 
has given the title, " The Devil's Mile." The population 
thereabout is of the poorest class, — day-laborers, wash- 
women, and costermongers. The mission has all the 
appointments of a regular church. Its house of wor- 
ship is large and comfortable. It has a spacious Sun- 
day-school room and class-rooms below the main au- 
ditorium, a pipe organ, and the usual church furnish- 
ings. A regular pastor, whom nature and experience 
have combined to give peculiar fitness for such work, 
devotes his whole time and strength to its service. It 
has its own treasurer, deacons, and committees, and is 
in all respects like an ordinary church except that it 
leans upon a stronger sister for support. 

No church in such a community with such a mem- 
bership could live a vigorously independent life, if it 
could live independently at all. There would be two 
great difficulties, and these the chief difficulties that 
disturb independent religious enterprises everywhere 
in poor neighborhoods : First, lack of money to sup- 
port an efficient pastor and to conduct the affairs of 
the church in a proper way ; second, lack of workers 
competent to take helpful part in prayer-meetings, to 
organize and lead the various religious, literary, and 
benevolent societies that are needed to lift along the 
work, and to teach in the Sunday-school. In this case 
the difficulty is overcome by uniting the weak church 
with a strong one. The latter, out of its abundance, 
supplies the needs of the former and both are benefited 
by the transaction,— one with the blessing of giving, 



140 CHRISTIAN WORK IN LONDON. 

the other with that of receiving. The Highbury Quad- 
rant people pay the entire pastor's salary for their 
brethren at Britannia How, and in hard times when 
the weather is bitter and work short, so that many are 
in destitution, they come generously to their aid with 
gifts of food, clothing, and fuel. The stronger church 
sends also a corps of its very best workers to assist in 
the Sunday-school and prayer-meetings, to lead moth- 
ers' meetings, and even to take the office of deacon in 
the church. It would be strange if this outlay of its 
strength in support of a feeble sister did not, as it 
does, react powerfully upon the sustaining church, giv- 
ing it more means for home expenditure and more 
workers for home work. It would be strange if going 
down to play the part of brother and sister in deed 
and in truth, by working shoulder to shoulder with 
these sons of toil and daughters of sorrow, did not, as 
it does, give to the well-to-do people of the Quadrant 
church such an understanding of the needs of the poor, 
and such sympathy with their troubles, as no end of 
reading and speculation could afford. It would be 
strange if these gifts of money, of strength, and of fel- 
lowship did not soften the bitterness of the poor 
toward the rich, as indeed it does, convince them of 
the reality of Christian brotherhood and open their 
hearts to all the uplifting influences of the Christian 
religion. Within the past ten years the neighborhood 
of Britannia Bow has been surprisingly transformed. 
Neat and comfortable dwellings are rapidly taking the 
place of the wretched rookeries that once abounded in 
those parts. Where once the people were almost with- 
out exception ragged, drunken, and miserable, they 
now appear in a great majority of cases to be neatly 



CHRISTIAN WORK IN LONDON. Ml 

clothed and comfortably situated. This remarkable 
change is doubtless chiefly due to the influence of the 
mission church. 

The other mission connected with the Highbury Quad- 
rant church is smaller and more of the usual type. The 
feature of it that appeared to the writer most interest- 
ing was a workingman's club and benefit society, com- 
prising some seven hundred members, of which Dr. 
Bevan was president, for whose meetings the mission 
buildings are used. A similar club meets also in the 
lecture-room of the main church. The church, with 
both of its missions, sustains a very great number of 
societies, clubs, classes, meetings, penny banks, unions, 
mothers' meetings, fathers' meetings, etc. The church 
report states that " irrespective of meetings for worship, 
there are in all, not less than 56 such institutions, all of 
which, with the exception of five, meet at least once a 
week, that honor the pastor with the title of president. 
The Sunday-school scholars in all these institutions 
number more than 1,300. The members of the various 
mothers' meetings nearly 1,000. Their annual contribu- 
tions for the purchase of coal and clothing exceed 
£600 ; penny banks have 926 depositors and their total 
deposits last year amounted to £579. The various 
temperance organizations have a membership of 700. 
The mutual benefit societies under various names, a 
membership of over 1,100, with an income for mutual 
help of more than £1,350. Once a week during six 
months of the year about 350 poor children receive a 
meat dinner, and 700 poor families or 3,500 individuals 
receive on Christmas eve sufficient material to provide 
substantial dinners for two days." 

Not far away from the church are the stables of one 



142 CHRISTIAN WORE IN LONDON. 

of the great street railway companies. In these build- 
ings, and on the cars that run out from them, are em- 
ployed, day and night, seven days in the week, a large 
number of men of a class as much neglected by teach- 
ers of religion as any in civilized countries. A mission- 
ary is employed for their special benefit; a man of their 
own rank, who, before his conversion, was well known 
to them as a famous quack, gamester, and drunken 
horse-doctor. He is now a thoroughly changed man, 
full of zeal, and a rough sort of power, and an ardent 
advocate of temperance. His history, experience, and 
natural gifts, sanctified by the grace of God, secure for 
him great influence over the men. He has won scores 
and hundreds of them to total abstinence, and many to 
the service of Christ. 

It is estimated that through these various channels, 
the church, whose membership is only 517, comes in 
contact with at least 10,000 lives. 

The Tolmer's Square Congregational Church adapts 
its work to the needs of the poorer classes by a very in- 
teresting movement of a somewhat different character. 
This church stands in the northwest quarter of London, 
not far from the junction of Euston and Tottenham 
Court Roads. The neighborhood is one which was 
long since abandoned by the wealthy, and from which 
well-to-do householders have gradually been moving 
away, leaving the better streets to business and board- 
ing-houses, while the poorer ones swarm with an ever 
denser population of artisans and laborers. Few 
churches have been called upon to look more squarely 
in the face the sternest, most difficult problems of city 
evangelization. As an effort toward the solution of 
those problems, some ten years ago, under the pastor- 



CHRISTIAN WORK IN LONDON. 143 

ate of the Kev. Henry Simon, now of Westminster 
chapel, there was projected by this church an institute 
for workingmen; that is, a place for the meetings and 
the headquarters of their friendly and temperance so- 
cieties, and a place where they could always gather for 
a social evening. The Eev. Arthur Hall, of Bristol, 
brother of Dr. Newman Hall, succeeded Mr. Simon, 
and pushed forward with great energy the plans of his 
predecessor. During his pastorate that noble building 
was completed which bears the name of Tolmer Insti- 
tute. At a distance of about three minutes' walk from 
the church, it rises loftily in the midst of a multitude of 
small shops, gleaming gin-palaces, and dingy tenement- 
houses. Four shops occupy the ground floor, one of 
which is a temperance cafe belonging to the institute. 
The rest of the building is occupied by rooms of vari- 
ous shapes and sizes, carefully adapted to its needs. 
Among these are a gymnasium and three good-sized 
audience-rooms, the largest of which has seats for 800 
people. The cost of the whole establishment, together 
with the land on which it stands, was not far from 
£14,000. Not more than five years have elapsed since 
its completion, and about three since the coming of the 
present pastor, the Eev. Frederic Hastings. Yet under 
his skillful management it has become a potent centre 
of Christian influence in that community, and its 
spacious accommodations are already taxed to their 
utmost capacity. 

Among the various institutions for working-people 
that meet in this place the following are noted : A Sun- 
day-school, a Band of Hope, two lodges of Good Tem- 
plars, and one of Sons of Temperance, a Woman's 
Temperance Society, a Thrift Society, three Building 



144 CHRISTIAN WOMK IN LONDON 

Societies, a Mutual Improvement Society, a " Help My- 
self " Society, two Phoenix (that is, temperance friendly) 
Societies, a Penny Bank, and a number of evening 
classes. There are also frequent " smoking concerts '* 
for workingmen, and popular penny concerts, which 
draw audiences of seven or eight hundred every Satur- 
day night, and pay their way handsomely. Here the 
pastor's wife holds mothers' meetings, where from 
seventy-five to one hundred poor women gather weekly, 
bringing their babies and their sewing, to hear reading, 
music, and gentle words of encouragement and helpful- 
ness. Here, too, are held frequent mission prayer- 
meetings. The writer attended one of them on a 
Sunday evening after church. The room, which was 
not a small one, was completely filled with people of 
the humbler sort, and a depth of feeling and spiritual 
power was manifest in the assembly such as one rarely 
meets. The leader that night chanced to be a woman. 
She filled her office with such grace and dignity, and 
spoke so fittingly, that we afterward learned with sur- 
prise that she was only a cook in a noble lady's f amity. 
That cook has gathered about herself a band of young 
women who meet every week for prayer and Bible 
study. She also gives her services most wisely and 
efficiently to other branches of Christian work, and is 
thus exerting an influence for good which is probably 
equalled by that of few noble ladies in England or in 
any other country. The best thing about it is, that all 
these various institutions move on of themselves, and 
are not a great and crushing weight upon the shoulders 
of the pastor. The friendly and temperance societies 
pay rent for their privileges. The cafe is a means of 
income, and these, together with the rents of the shops 



CHRISTIAN WORK IN LONDON. 145 

and other revenues, render the institute very nearly 
self-supporting. All the meetings are intrusted to the 
management of certain committees, which appoint their 
leaders, and are responsible for their conduct. The 
minister attends only so many of the score and more 
of weekly meetings as he finds time for. All is so skill- 
fully arranged that he can be absent from the parish 
for months at a time without the occurrence of any 
confusion in its internal workings. 

It is worthy of notice that the chief political power 
in that district, low and vicious as the neighborhood 
appears, is in the hands of no brewer nor liquor- dealer. 
The member of Parliament for the west division of St. 
Pancreas publicly acknowledged at the last election 
that he owed his seat to the personal influence of Mr. 
Hastings. This influence is doubtless largely due to 
the quick wit and fiery eloquence of the man. But it 
is not improbable that his relation to Tolmer Institute 
is his weightiest argument in winning to the cause he 
advocated the votes and confidence of the people. 

Before leaving this part of the subject, the reader 
will be introduced to one other church, engaged in 
work of still another type among the poor — work 
which, in its way, is as remarkable as any that the world 
has to show. This is the East London Tabernacle. Its 
pastor, the Be v. Archibald G. Brown, is a Baptist of the 
broad, English type. He is a man of rather striking 
appearance, somewhat above middle height, rather 
slender, with soldierly bearing and laic dress, is prema- 
turely gray, with a fresh, animated face, clear tenor 
voice, and eyes that are full of leadership. He is gifted 
with remarkable executive capacity, and is at the same 
time a ready and effective speaker, filled with a passion- 
10 



146 CHRISTIAN WORK IN LONDON 

ate love for souls.* His audiences surpass in size any 
that we saw in London, with the exception of Mr. 
Spurgeon's and those of the cathedrals. The church is 
a plain square building, with scarcely the appearance 
of an ecclesiastical structure. It has seats for thirty- 
two hundred people, and remarkably good acoustic 
properties. It stands on Burdett Eoad, a few rods from 
Mile End Eoad, in the centre of East London. There 
is probably nowhere else in the world so extensive and 
so homogeneous a population of working-people as that 
in whose midst it is located. Many of these people are 
exceedingly poor and degraded. Within nve minutes' 
walk of the church, in several directions, one may come 
upon the lowest types of human habitation. It was in 
this neighborhood, and by the assistance of Mr. Brown 
and his missionaries, that many of the investigations 
were made, the account of which, under the title " The 
Bitter Cry of Outcast London," so startled England and 
all the world four years ago. In many of these streets 
there are not, on the average, two rooms to each family 
of inhabitants. In some houses there are as many 
families as rooms; and such rooms, small, dark, foul, 
and miserable beyond desertion ! 

A correspondent of The Daily Telegraph has written a 
graphic account of an interview with Mr. Brown and 
a visit to certain parts of his parish, from which we 
quote at length in order to give a better conception of 
the nature of the work in which he is engaged: 

" If you want statistics of the one-room horror you 
shall have them out of my very district," said the 

* This is chosen as an example of a stj'le of Christian work such as 
that of Mr. Spurgeon, Dr. Bernado, and others, in which the person- 
ality of the leader is a most important element. 



CHRISTIAN WORK IN LONDON 14.7 

minister, turning to a carefully prepared tabulated 
sheet, which comprised every house to which his mis- 
sionaries had access; "what do you say to this? three 
hundred and forty rooms yield nearly two hundred and 
sixty families ; or in square figures, twelve hundred 
and forty-four human beings. Cast your eye, sir, over 
the list. Number — Cable Street, there are six fam- 
ilies in twelve rooms, and twenty-nine persons living 
in the twelve-roomed house. Next door there are 
twenty-eight human beings in the house, exactly the 

same size. Number — B Street appears to head 

the list. No less than forty-seven human beings, the 
total of six families, are thrust every night into six 
rooms, and you shall presently see what rooms they 
are, for which sums varying from 2s. 6d. to 3s. 6d. are 
charged — rooms with ceilings breaking away from the 
rafters; smoky and grimy rooms; rooms where chim- 
neys smoke and windows won't unfasten; rooms smoth- 
ered in vermin, or overrun with mice; rooms approached 
by breakneck staircases as black as pitch, garrets of 
rooms with sloping rafters ; cellars of rooms under- 
neath the pavement; rooms overlooking low, miserable 
streets or foul mud-yards ; hopeless, cheerless, despair- 
ing rooms where wives strip their children piecemeal 
for the pawn-shop ; where the furniture seldom con- 
sists of more than a broken table or backless chair; 
where the children, when a stranger knocks at the door, 
come across to him with starving eyes, and ask, ' Have 
you brought mother some bread?' and where the 
blind, neglected, lonely widow sits upon an empty floor 
in a tireless room, during the dull November day, and 
mumbles hopeless assent when asked by the good- 
hearted missionary to join him in prayer to God that 



148 CHRISTIAN WORK IN LONDON. 

some miracle may be worked in order to lighten this 
unspeakable darkness " * 

The reporter thus describes some of the places as he 
himself saw them in company with the missionary: 

" We go from bad to worse. Elizabeth Court is 
infinitely more foul than James Place, and the poverty 
more heart-rending. A widow has just managed to 
screw together one pennyworth of coals, and she ex- 
presses her thankfulness enthusiastically, for at last she 
has got one shirt to wash and perhaps this may mean 
a beginning of work again. But what a room in which 
to wash a shirt ! The furniture broken, the walls 
grimy, the floor filthy, the bedding of that indescrib- 
able color between brown and black. 

" We ascend to a garret. An Irish woman is here 
in despair. She has pawned almost the whole of her 
available property already. At home with her are an 
idiot son, a daughter of thirteen, and several younger 
children. There is not a chair within the tumble-down 
apartment; the bedstead has a foul rug on it and no 
more clothing; in a corner under the sloping roof 
rustles some straw where the idiot boy lies. The old 
story — no work or prospect of it; no bread or prospect 
of it. The fire is almost out, and with it all light, all 
hope. 

" We now arrive at a house where the staircase is so 
pitch dark that I have to grope my way up on my 
hands and knees. This is one of the cheerful abodes 
where forty-seven human beings are packed into six 
rooms. It is the strangest experience I have ever en- 
countered. Here, in this hovel, children are about to 

* Daily Telegraph, London, November 21, 1883. 



CHRISTIAN WORK IN LONDON 149 

be born ; here men and women are dying ; here new- 
born infants are yelling for food, guarded by baby 
nurses, whilst the expectant mother is off on some 
errand; here children of all ages and sizes swarm about 
the filthy floor with matted hair, and rags on their poor 
little bodies. 

" We mount to the top of the house. "We tap at the 
door, and it is opened. A j>icture-frame maker lives 
here, but he is out of work, as he needs must be since, 
in the first place, he has pawned his tools to get bread; 
and in the second, he has scarcely sufficient clothing to 
go out and search for employment. The wife is in bed, 
or rather she is rolled up on the floor in a filthy rug, 
for there is no bed, suffering from acute rheumatism. 
The fire is almost out, and one of the children, without 
any shoes or stockings, is hugging the cat that is kept 
to insure an absence of mice and rats for the sake of 
the wretched people compelled to lie on the floor. We 
hear no grumbling, no complaint, no execration, no 
despairing cry. Even these poor people with their 
empty stomachs and their fireless grates listen to a 
prayer when it is offered up though it sounds strangely 
under such circumstances. Talk to these people of 
the workhouse and they will refuse to discuss the 
question farther. The workhouse means separation 
from husband and child. They would rather starve or 
die here than that." 

Such was the region in the midst of which an earn- 
est man of God found himself stationed as a preacher 
of the Gospel. The ordinary means of grace were 
found to be here, as they are everywhere when faith- 
fully and prayerfully used, efficient. Mr. Brown proved 
to be a popular preacher. Multitudes came to hear 



150 CHRISTIAN WORK IN LONDON. 

him, and scores and hundreds, through his words and 
the Spirit's power, were borne into the kingdom of God. 
But in a place like London, or indeed in any great 
city, large congregations may represent but small and 
limited sections of the people. So it was here : this 
great and flourishing church in all its religious work 
did not touch nor approach a very large portion of the 
community. Not one of the very poorest class, — of the 
people who stood most in need of the consolations of 
the Gospel, — would ever think of attending any of its 
regular or irregular services ; and those who did at- 
tend were a sifted and selected class composed of the 
most intelligent and well-to-do people of the com- 
munity. 

In the winter of 1S79, when the length and severity 
of the season occasioned an unusual amount of distress, 
considerable sums of money were placed in the hands 
of Mr. Brown for the relief of the needy. The first 
plan adopted by him was that of distributing alms 
from his own home, but this soon proved impracti- 
cable. His door was continually besieged by throngs of 
applicants for aid, many of whom were quite unworthy 
of it, while the most deserving cases were the last to 
make their needs known. He accordingly employed 
two missionaries, both of them excellent men, and well 
fitted for their work, who went from house to house, 
through the most destitute streets, searching out the 
needy and supplying their wants in their own rooms. 
In this way he and his missionaries secured a welcome 
to about a thousand homes that had before been closed 
to Christ and Christian teachers. They thereupon re- 
solved that " so open a door of usefulness should not 
be allowed to close." The matter was presented to the 



CHRISTIAN WORK IN LONDON. 151 

congregation and friends. They responded with liberal 
donations. The work which had been commenced as a 
temporary measure, to meet the exigencies of a severe 
winter, was accordingly established on a permanent 
.basis and has been constantly expanding from that 
time to this. 

It is assumed that when people are suffering the bit- 
terness of extreme poverty their most pressing physical 
necessities must be relieved before their spiritual des- 
titution can be successfully dealt with. It is also as- 
sumed that any system of relief work which aims at 
anything less or lower than the conversion of those for 
whom it labors to the Lord Jesus Christ, can give only 
a temporary and superficial sort of help. The plan is 
therefore adopted of first ministering to the immediate 
wants of the poor, feeding those who are found to be 
hungry and without food, clothing the tattered and 
half -naked, furnishing coal to the shivering and fire- 
less, redeeming from pawn artisan's tools, garments 
and other necessities of life which famine has torn 
from them, providing medicines for the sick and help- 
ing the unemployed to find work. Secondly and simul- 
taneously with their work for the relief of these phys- 
ical necessities it is the custom of the missionaries then 
and there to preach the Gospel to the neglected people. 
Into the midst of the want, squalor, and sunless sad- 
ness of their wretched homes is brought the story of 
Christ's redeeming love ; the claims of God are person- 
ally urged ; salvation by the only Saviour is freely and 
affectionately offered; and these heathen in the heart of 
Christendom are taught to commit themselves with 
their wants to the fatherhood of God. " Our work," 
says Mr. Brown, "is seeking to save. This is carried 



152 CHBISTIAN WOBK IN LONDON. 

on amid the clean and squalid alike. There is no pick- 
ing and choosing. Bespectable or disreputable, they 
need God's salvation. From room to room the mission- 
aries make their way, sometimes discouraged, some- 
times sickened, often saddened, but ever seeking by all 
means to save some." 

Nine missionaries, who give their whole time to such 
work, were at last accounts employed by this church. 
Not merely from house to house, but from room to 
room they go, relieving the needy, visiting the sick, 
consoling the afflicted, and preaching the Gospel every- 
where. Their energetic leader declares that a mission- 
ary of experience never stops to talk in the entries, 
never visits the lower rooms first, but goes to the very 
top of a house to begin his work with its inmates and 
" prays his way down," leaving no apartment unvisited, 
where it is possible to gain admission. During the 
year 1885, 26,340 visits were made by these mission- 
aries. Those only are reckoned as visits where there 
has been actual intercourse inside the people's rooms. 
Relief in the shape of food was given in 8,428 in- 
stances. The sick have been cared for to the number 
of 3,938. During the year there were distributed up- 
wards of 35,000 loaves of bread, 80 cwt. of rice, 35,000 
lbs. of potatoes, and 1,000 lbs. of tea, besides 5,600 
garments. 

The missionaries, after spending most of the day in 
visitation, hold evening meetings for the benefit of the 
people among whom they have been working, in four 
mission halls provided for the purpose. Each mission- 
ary has a regular personal and private interview with 
the pastor once a week; and each sends in a weekly re- 
port, stating the kind and amount of relief given, the 



CHRISTIAN WORK IN LONDON. 153 

number and locality of calls made, and the meetings 
held. Money is never given away except in very special 
cases. All relief is supplied by tickets, which are orders 
on the grocers and shop-keepers, or on a central office 
where tea and clothing are given out. As the tickets 
are given gradually in connection with the calls, there 
is never a rush upon the central office. All garments 
given away are stamped with Mr. Brown's name, and, 
therefore, cannot be accepted at the pawn-shops. The 
church and its friends also sustain an orphans' home 
and a seaside home for the exhausted and for conva- 
lescents, besides a great number of clubs, societies, 
meetings, and classes, such as have already been de- 
scribed. 

The vigor and activity of the life enjoyed by the 
church is remarkable. No communion season passes — 
none has passed during the twenty years of the present 
pastorate — without accessions to its membership. On 
the occasion of our last visit, in July, 1886, we were in- 
formed that sixty persons were then waiting to be bap- 
tized within three weeks, which was said to be no 
extraordinary number. Most of these are not the fruits, 
or, at least, not the immediate fruits, of the mission 
work. It deals with persons so degraded that ordinary 
church services cannot affect them. They are lifted by 
degrees. They are first touched by the words of the 
missionary in their home, are then persuaded to visit 
the mission chapels, and are there lifted a step higher. 
They next learn to enjoy the prayer-meetings of the 
church, and are finally brought into the regular services 
of the Lord's house. 

" Any week evening service," says the pastor, " there 
may be found at our tabernacle prayer-meeting those 



154 CHRISTIAN WOBK IN LONDON. 

who used to lead drunken, abandoned, and, in some 
cases, indescribably vicious lives. "We do not say that 
all these are truly converted, but to say the least, it is a 
glorious change from street- walking and public-house 
fighting. There is no hopeless class. Christ wins them 
all." 

One naturally asks how any church, and especially 
one so largely composed of poor people, can possibly 
raise money enough to support such extensive mission- 
ary operations. In reply to this question, we quote 
again the correspondent of The Daily Telegraph : 

"You ask me where the money comes from with 
which I am able to relieve these sorrows of Shadwell ? 
"Well, I am old-fashioned enough to believe in prayer. 
I pray for these wretched people night and day, and as 
yet I have never prayed in vain. Look here," and he 
led me to his study-table, where ever opened lies an 
ordinary ledger. "Glance at that last entry, if you 
please. ' A thank-offering for blessings given and many 
mercies vouchsafed, £75.' That is a donation; but I 
am to have the same sum every year, so long as my 
good friend lives. Please God, the ink-marks on that 
ledger will never long be dry." 

The work is not advertised. No one but the Lord is 
ever asked for money or for help. Once a year the 
church appoints a day for receiving special thank-offer- 
ings, to be devoted to the mission work. A week-day 
is set apart as thank-offering day. Due notice having 
been given, the church is open from early morning, 
when men are going to their work, until late at night, 
and all day long the pastor is present to receive in per- 
son each gift from the hand of the giver. The offerings 
are of all sizes — poor workingmen bring a shilling or 



CHRISTIAN WORK IN LONDON 155 

two ; children contribute a few pence ; widows offer 
their mite, and the few that are rich bring much. Each 
donor, whether his gifts be small or great, is properly 
credited with it in the books. As most of the people 
are poor, the greater proportion of the money raised 
comes in small sums of a few shillings each ; but taken 
all together the thank-offerings usually amount to sev- 
eral hundred pounds. Besides this, donations for the 
mission work pour in from all over England. Not a 
farthing of debt is ever incurred ; yet means have never 
been lacking for the continuance and expansion of the 
work. 

Christian workers in London have experienced the 
same difficulty in retaining their influence over the 
older boys of the Sunday-school that has perplexed so 
many of us here. Our attention was directed to one 
very interesting and successful effort to overcome this 
difficulty, which is well worthy of study. 

The Regent Square Presbyterian Church, of which 
Dr. Oswald Dykes is pastor, had a nourishing mission, 
since then become a church, in Somerstown, a poor 
neighborhood in Northwest London. Connected with 
this mission was a large Sunday-school, composed al- 
most entirely of artisans' children. Great numbers of 
small children and of larger girls attended the school ; 
but the boys, after reaching the age of fourteen or fif- 
teen, became possessed of the notion that they were too 
big for Sunday-school, and so left it, and were soon 
estranged from religious influences of all kinds, so that 
the work done for the boys' classes seemed like water 
poured on the ground. For the sake of saving these 
lads, after much thought and prayer, an institute for 
working lads was planned and organized. It commenced 



156 CHRISTIAN WOBK IN LONDON 

very modestly, with a small membership, and provided 
at firsc only a small room for reading and club room, 
a Bible-class, and one or two evening classes. But it 
grew and extended its operations rapidly. Commodious 
quarters in an old chapel were secured ; a gymnasium, 
a library and reading-room, and evening classes were 
successively added ; games were provided, a regular 
ground for cricket and football was hired ; meetings 
and entertainments of all sorts were held, and now the 
" top story of the Sunday-school," as the Oldenham In- 
stitute is sometimes called, is wonderfully popular. It 
has a membership of over four hundred, and the aver- 
age small boy of that Sunday-school has no higher am- 
bition than to become a member of it, a thing not 
allowed until he has reached the age of fifteen. 

There are three Bible-classes in the week. A guild 
with daily Bible-readings and monthly meetings com- 
prises a large portion of its members. They have a 
course of " ambulance instruction " on first aid to the 
injured, art classes, classes in English literature and 
composition, in English grammar and elocution, in 
political economy, singing, writing, arithmetic, book- 
keeping, French, German, and nine different science 
classes, besides technical instruction in carpentry, 
plumbers' work, printing, and lithography. 

As most of the members are young, and all of them 
engaged in tedious toil during the day, the Institute 
performs no slight service in providing them with 
healthy play. It has a chess and draughts (checkers) 
club, a cricket club, a football club, a swimming club, 
and a club of " harriers," for the old-fashioned English 
game of hare-and-hounds. 

The Institute has, in many ways, been of almost 



CHRISTIAN WORK IN LONDON. 157 

priceless value to its members. By taking up the even- 
ings and holidays which most boys of that class simply 
idle away on the streets or in worse places, and filling 
them with helpful instruction and healthful amusement, 
it has lifted its members quite "out of the old degraded 
life to which they were born and seemed to be doomed. 
When the president, a warm-hearted British merchant, 
had conducted the writer through two or three rooms 
full of the young fellows engaged in their usual em- 
ployments, the latter exclaimed: "Why, these are not 
working lads ! " " No," was the reply, " it is true that 
they are nearly all clerks; but working lads they all 
have been, and working lads they still would be were 
it not for this Institute." 

In speaking within so limited a space upon so great 
a theme as that of Christian work in London, it has 
been necessary to select a very few characteristic items 
for presentation out of the vast amount of material at 
hand, and it has seemed wisest to dwell on those forms 
of work that are more or less directly connected with 
local churches. But it should not be forgotten that a 
very large proportion of the religious effort in that city, 
especially that which deals with the needs of the poor, 
has no connection with any local church. There are 
multitudes of independent missions of all sorts, many 
of them well worth studying, of which we can make no 
mention. It will not do, however, to pass by without a 
word of notice the most remarkable of them all, name- 
ly: The London City Mission* This great organization 
has, for fifty years, been carrying the Gospel silently, 
but with exceeding power, into the dark and cruel 

* See These Fifty Years, John Matthias Weyland. London, 1884. 



158 CHRISTIAN WORK IN LONDON. 

places of the great town. It works in the interest of 
no denomination — is supported by collections made 
from all the churches and by donations from Christians 
of every name and order. Its missionaries, of whom 
there are now about five hundred, are chiefly occupied 
in carrying the Gospel from house to house in the 
neglected parts of the city, in distributing tracts and 
portions of the Scriptures, and in ministering to the 
sick and dying. Upwards of three millions of such 
calls were reported last year, of which two hundred and 
seventy thousand were calls upon the sick. Besides 
this general work the society has appointed a large 
number of special missionaries for the benefit of cer- 
tain classes whose peculiar circumstances have shut 
them out from the regular means of grace. Mission- 
aries are employed by the society who give their whole 
time to work for policemen, for bakers, for night and 
day cabmen, for drovers, for omnibus and tram-carmen, 
for soldiers and sailors, for fire brigades, for theatre 
employes, for hotel servants, for canalboat men, for 
coachmen and grooms, for letter-carriers and telegraph 
boys, for railway-men and navvies, for gypsies, for fall- 
en women, and for thieves. A score or so of missionaries 
are exclusively engaged in visiting public-houses, gin- 
palaces, and coffee-shops. The missionaries also con- 
duct a great number of Bible-readings and evangelistic 
meetings, some of which are held in workhouses, peni- 
tentiaries, hospitals, and factories, and many in the 
open air. 

Street meetings are very common in London. You 
will hear the voice of prayer, Gospel melodies, and 
earnest preaching by the wayside in scores of places 
all over the great city on any pleasant Sunday afternoon 



CHRISTIAN WORK IN LONDON 159 

or during the long twilight of the summer evenings. 
The parks are the favorite places, however, for open- 
air services. On every Sunday afternoon several such 
meetings are carried on at the same time and side by 
side both in Regent's Park and Hyde Park. Besides 
half a dozen meetings for preaching the Gospel, one of 
which is always conducted in the German language, 
there are usually two or three for the proclamation of 
Socialism, and others in which the credibility of the 
Christian religion is discussed in alternate attacks 
made by some representative of infidelity and de- 
fences by some Christian. London has a Society of 
Christian Evidences, which gives particular atten- 
tion to training young men for work of this sort. 
Many churches in poorer neighborhoods preface their 
evening services by brief open-air meetings. The value 
of such preaching may be questioned. It shocks one's 
sensibilities, at first, to hear sacred things cried out 
amid the shifting, laughing, trifling crowd out for a 
holiday. Yet the careful observer will rarely fail to find 
one or two real listeners at every such meeting. We 
know of one large and flourishing church situated in a 
neighborhood of great poverty and vice which sprang 
out of an open-air movement combined with a mission 
Sunday-school in the first place, and, having continued 
its out-of-door services until the present time, has act- 
ually gathered a large portion of its members from the 
streets. 

A discussion of Christian work among the masses of 
London would be incomplete without some reference 
to that singular religious movement called The Salva- 
tion Army. The nature and methods of this organiza- 
tion are too well known to require description ; but in 



160 CHRISTIAN WOBK IN LONDON. 

order to be intelligently understood they should be 
studied on their native soil. About twenty years ago, 
when there was far less religious and philanthropic 
work for the poor than now, a certain unknown Wes- 
leyan minister, William Booth by name, touched by the 
misery and godlessness of the place, commenced 
preaching the Gospel to the poor on a waste piece of 
land near Mile End Eoad, East London. Out of that 
humble beginning sprang the Salvation Army at whose 
head Mr. Booth continues to stand, the " General " of 
a host whose officers are now numbered by thousands 
and the soldiers by hundreds of thousands, and whose 
operations are extended around the globe. 

This is a mission from the lower classes, by the lower 
classes, and for the lower classes. It speaks to the 
common people in their own manner and their native 
language. The vernacular of the slums of London is 
practically a different language from that of the 
prayer-book and the pulpit. Religion, as the Church 
ordinarily teaches it, is presented in a tongue half 
unknown to the day laborer. The missionaries to the 
Indians have best succeeded in converting them, not 
by teaching them English first and then presenting the 
Gospel in English, but by translating the truth into 
their own rough speech and bringing its messages 
home to their heart on the wings of the mother-tongue; 
so it is the plan of the Salvation Army to translate the 
messages of salvation into the rude lingo of the dock- 
yard and the gin-palace in order that it may reach 
those who know no other language. For the same rea- 
son its music and its religious meetings resemble the 
entertainments given in cheap theatres and low concert 
halls. 



CHRISTIAN WORK IN LONDON. 161 

It has many excellent features. The earnestness and 
courage of its leaders and their enthusiasm for the 
salvation of the very lowest cannot be too highly 
praised. The plainness of its speech and the faithful- 
ness and power with which it bears its testimony are 
to be commended. Much of the criticism urged against 
it is unjust. Utterances of its members that seem 
shockingly irreverent and actions that seem rude, take 
that appearance because the observer judges from his 
own point of view and is unable to appreciate the sin- 
cerity from which they spring. It is, however, un- 
doubtedly the case that the Salvation Army furnishes 
a striking illustration of the truth that the religion of 
a class, whether the class be high or low, must always 
be a narrow and one-sided religion. This movement, 
being exclusively one of the lower classes, lacks just those 
elements that the presence of cultured members would 
give it. It needs ballast. It is enthusiastic, couragous, 
and hearty; but it is neither jwise, nor_ thorough, juor 
profound^ There is an excessive amount of evangelis- 
tic appeal ; there is a grievous lack of religious and 
Biblical instruction. As to the value of its work on the 
whole, it is not easy to speak with certainty. We have \ 
found a great variety of opinions regarding it. Of its j 
value in one direction, however, there is but one opinion. 
It has had a great influence in stirring up the churches 
to an appreciation of the needs of the poor and their 
duty toward the outcast. 

It is encouraging to believe that the religious work 
of London is not without effect. There has been prog- 
ress in the condition of the working-classes within 
twenty-five years. Slowly, but surely, headway is mak- 
ing against the awful current of sin and misery. There 



162 CHBISTIAN WORK IN LONDON. 

is less drunkenness, less pauperism, and less crime in 
the great metropolis to-day than ten years ago. The 
missionary spirit is abroad in the churches and in- 
creases from year to year. " With God all things are 
possible," — and it is one of the modern miracles to see 
a city growing better while she daily adds to her im- 
mensity. 



CHAPTEE VI. 



THE McALL MISSION. 



In our day God has raised up one man and sent him 
with signs and wonders to be an apostle to the perish- 
ing masses of a great and godless city. 

Rev. Kobert W. McAll, the pastor of an English 
Congregational church, crossed the Channel with Mrs. 
McAll for the first time in the summer of 1871 to spend 
a short vacation on the Continent. Four days of this 
visit were allotted to Paris. That city had just been 
passing through the dreadful experience with which 
the Franco-Prussian war came to its close. The smoke 
of the besieging cannon had scarcely cleared away, 
fresh wounds were still bleeding, the horrors of famine 
had but just subsided, and the wretched poor in their 
want and misery were utterly destitute of the conso- 
lations of religion. Prompted by a yearning of heart 
over the unfortunate people, Mr. and Mrs. McAll 
resolved to spend their last evening at Paris in distrib- 
uting tracts and Scripture portions. Notwithstanding 
the protests of friends, they went alone to that miser- 
able quarter named Belleville, whose gloomy houses in 
days of trouble know how to pour out troops of gaunt, 
hungry men and furious women to swell the Commune. 
They took their stand under the gas that blazes in front 
of a great wine-vault on the corner of Rue de Belleville 

(168) 



164 THE McALL MISSION. 

and the Boulevard, and they commenced to offer tracts 
to the thronging passers-by. 

A crowd of poor people gathered about them in no 
time, eager to receive the little gifts; and at length one 
in a workingman's blouse stood forth from among his 
fellows and said in English : " Sir, are you not an Eng- 
lish minister ? If so, I have something of importance 
to say to you. You are at this moment in the very 
midst of a district inhabited by thousands and tens of 
thousands of us, workingmen. To a man we have done 
with an imposed religion, a religion of superstition and 
oppression. But if any one would come to teach us 
religion of another kind — a religion of freedom and 
earnestness — many of us are ready to listen." * 

In that pleading face, seen for but one brief moment, 
yet never to be forgotten, McAll beheld his " Man of 
Macedonia." 

He had already passed the " dead-line " of fifty. He 
was wholly ignorant of the French language. He had 
never even visited Paris before, and was utterly unac- 
quainted with its people and its ways. His kindred 
and friends and all his interests were in England. As 
pastor of an important church at Hadley which had 
two missions of its own, his sphere of usefulness at 
home was by no means insignificant. If any one could 
be excused from a foreign mission he was that man — ■ 
so urged his friends. But he saw the matter differ- 
ently. There were men enough ready to fill his place 
at Hadley. He had sufficient income for a modest sup- 
port without a salary. The fields of France were 



* A Cry from the Land of Calvin and Voltaire. Records of the 
McAll Mission, p. 9, London, 1887. 



TEE McALL MISSION. 165 

" white already to harvest," and there were no reapers. 
He felt that he must go. 

Five months later Mr. and Mrs. McAll again walked 
together amid the crowds of Rue de Belleville. This 
time they were not distributing tracts, but invitations 
to their first meeting, which was held in a small shop 
fitted up as a mission hall. They had chosen a home 
in the neighborhood and were resolved to give the rest 
of their lives to the work of the Gospel among the 
common people of Paris. McAll had only two sen- 
tences of French with which to begin the great crusade, 
— " God loves you," and " I love you." But when men 
saw that those two were messages which came from a 
sincere and fervent heart, they believed them and re- 
ceived them gladly. Twenty-eight persons attended 
the first meeting. Within the fifteen years that have 
elapsed since then, the single mission hall has become 
one hundred, thirty-four of them situated in Paris and 
environs, in which nearly seventeen thousand meetings 
have been held and more than a million persons gath- 
ered for religious instruction in the course of the past 
year. 

The city to which this modern apostle was sent with 
his message of life was one of peculiar spiritual desti- 
tution. The grasp of the Roman Church upon the 
French, especially upon Parisians, became feebler with 
every year. She had lost the respect and confidence 
of the common people, and had consequently, to a great 
extent, forfeited her influence over them. They sus- 
pected her of hostility to free institutions and popular 
education. They resented her assumption of the right 
to interpose her authority in secular affairs. Her 
priests were esteemed to be lovers of money rathe* 



166 THE McALL MISSION. 

than lovers of men, and flatterers of the rich instead of 
friends to the poor. The inconsistency of many of her 
teachings and claims with reason and sound common 
sense was keenly felt. She had in large measure ceased 
to bear the water of life to the thirsting people; her 
fountain was dried up and full of dust ; her cup was 
empty. Multitudes turned away from her in disgust 
to rationalism, — to animalism, — to thoughtless, hopeless 
unbelief. 

The Protestants of France, meanwhile, were able to 
do, or at all events were doing little to save those whom 
the emptiness of Rome had driven into irreligion. 
Although the churches of the Huguenots had never 
been quite extinguished, and had been tolerated and 
even supported by the State since the time of the first 
Napoleon, they had lived as it were in a strait- jacket. 
They had been hampered by numerous restrictions and 
petty persecutions urged on under legal sanction by 
their enemies. Until within a few years Protestants 
had no legal right to burial in ground set apart for the 
sacred rest of the dead, but found a place there only 
on sufferance. " They might not hold the stated ser- 
vices of their religion except with government permis- 
sion and under government surveillance, which not 
only fixed days and hours and place of meeting, but 
had a right to intervene in the matter of the doctrine 
taught. All special or irregular meetings, as for prayer 
or conference, were prohibited, except under special 
sanction ; and failing that, could only be safely con- 
vened by means of formal invitations to a private 
house, issued as for a private social gathering. To 
distribute religious notices, handbills, tracts, or other 
printed matter, without a colporteur's license, was 



THE McALL MISSION. 167 

equally illegal. The printed invitations to the McAU 
meetings were all thus illegally distributed up to 1878 
and during the earlier years, before the work had come 
to be thoroughly appreciated, never without a certain 
degree of risk. Two of the young ladies of the Mis- 
sion were, indeed, arrested in 1873 for distributing 
printed announcements of a meeting, although that 
very meeting had been authorized by the Prefect of the 
Police. The young ladies were released without diffi- 
culty. At that time, and for several years later, it was 
contrary to law to make proselytes or to give Protest- 
ant instruction to the children of non-Protestants. All 
the missionary and evangelizing agencies of the Prot- 
estant churches were carried on under laws which 
permitted merely the instructing anew, and confirming 
in the faith of nominal Protestants — those who were 
such by baptism or inheritance." * 

" It was not so very long before this time that a mis- 
sionary of the London Bible Society had been tried in 
the French courts for offering a room in his house for 
religious meetings and for swindling ; that is, for taking 
up voluntary contributions for religious purposes. On 
the first count he was condemned, fined, and impris- 
oned for two months, and though not condemned on 
the second count, he was severely reprimanded by the 
judge, who said that such a proceeding was virtually 
swindling under the law, and would so be treated if it 
occurred again." f 

Such repression of evangelistic effort was unfavor- 

* French Protestantism in the Nineteenth Century. By Louise Sey- 
mour Haughtorj, pp. 4 and 5. Published by the American McAll 
Association. Philadelphia, 1886. 

t Ibid., p. 6. 



168 THE McALL MISSION. 

able to the spiritual health of the Protestant churches. 
Rationalism became wide- spread among them, and did 
its part in quenching religious zeal. Thus, hampered 
without and weakened within, being, moreover, few in 
number, poor and uninnuential, the Eef ormed churches 
of fifteen years ago were doing little more than to care 
for those of their own household. The common peo- 
ple of Paris, and other cities as well, repelled in vast 
numbers from the Roman Catholic Church, and not 
won by the Protestants, were therefore left in woful 
ignorance of all religious truth. 

The great preachers and revivalists of England and 
America have usually addressed themselves and adapted 
their measures to the needs of a people who were al- 
ready somewhat familiar with the fundamental facts of 
our faith. Such methods of conducting evangelistic 
meetings and doing Christian work as commonly pre- 
vail among us, therefore assume that those with whom 
they deal accept the Bible as the word of God, and 
know something of its cardinal doctrines. But for the 
masses of Paris, — for a people to whom no other light 
had come than such distorted and discolored rays as 
could penetrate the deep-stained windows of Catholi- 
cism, — the ordinary religious methods of England and 
America were found to be in many resjDects inadequate 
and unsuitable. 

Mr. McAll declares that there are "hundreds of 
thousands in Paris itself who, up to this day, have 
literally never had a Bible in their hands, nor have 
come once within the sound of the preaching of justi- 
fication by faith." * The following account of the ex- 

* A Cry from the Land of Calvin and Voltaire, p. 23. 



THE McALL MISSION. 109 

perience of an intelligent man, a landed proprietor who 
was in the habit of spending six months of every year 
in Paris, is scarcely credible, and vividly illustrates 
what McAll has termed " the prevailing obli vion of the 
Book in France." This man having been persuaded to 
attend one of the meetings, said to the leader at its 
close, "What book is that you read from, sir?" "The 
Bible! or what we call < La Parole de Dieu.'" "The 
Bible ! Could you lend it me for a week ? I will bring 
it back. I never heard these words before ! " " Oh," 
replied the preacher, "I will give you a Gospel," and 
handed him the Gospel of John. He thanked him, 
gave his card, and went away. Next Tuesday he re- 
turned the Gospel, saying, " That is not the book you 
read from ; cannot you lend me the book ? " " Cer- 
tainly," was the answer ; so I gave him a copy. It was 
small, and he found out where to buy one, and went 
and bought a large Bible for himself. " Strange," he 
said, " I never saw this book before, and since hearing 
you read it I went to three booksellers in Batignolles, 
intending to buy it ; but they could neither supply it 
nor tell me where to procure one. Then I sent my wife, 
hoping she might succeed, and she came back with this 
statement, ' It was a bad book, a forbidden book, and 
only used by priests and pastors.' So I was afraid 
I could not get it. Now I shall read it, measure and 
weigh every word." * 

Another characteristic of the people whom the McAll 
Mission seeks to save, is an astonishing ignorance of 
the fact and nature of sin. Speaking of this matter, 
Mr. McAll remarks: ''"We would not conceal the im- 

* A Cry from the Land of Calvin and Voltaire, p. 46. 



170 THE McALL MISSION. 

mense obstacles to Gospel-prevalence which the actual 
state of the masses of the French people interposes. 
We dare not say that conscience is tender; far other- 
wise, alas ! A vast work remains to be effected in the 
awakening of the inward monitor. The entire tendency 
of Romish practices and teachings through a succes- 
sion of centuries has been to lull conscience into a deep 
sleep. True insight of sin, as heart-rebellion against 
our heavenly Father, is rare indeed Through- 
out fifteen years' history of our work we have been 
constantly meeting with surprising examples of the 
prevailing inaction, the deadness of conscience." * A 
young man said to a missionary, " I admire and delight 
in the meetings, but you are always talking to sinners. 
For my part, I am no sinner. I have nothing with 
which to reproach myself. I have never wronged any 
one." " No, I have never sinned," said a woman indig- 
nantly. "To be sure," she added, "I have sometimes 
said my fish was fresh when it wasn't ; but then God 
knew that was for my interest, and He will not blame 
me." 

Furthermore, such notions of religious matters as do 
prevail are distorted and even fantastic. This is well il- 
lustrated by a story from one of the children's meetings: 

" The lesson for the day chanced to be on prayer and 
the gift of the Holy Spirit. The speaker .... pro- 
ceeded to explain to the children what was meant by 
praying for spiritual graces, using language and illus- 
trations so thoroughly level with their intellectual 
capacities, that the greatest quiet reigned in the saMe, 
and intelligence seemed to beam on every face. The 

* A Cry from the Land of Calvin and Voltaire, pp. &± and 25. 



THE McALL MISSION. 171 

teacher, greatly encouraged, finished by saying, 'Now, 
how many of you have already prayed for spiritual 
graces ? ' Up went several hands, but on investigation 
most of these morning devotions resolved themselves 
into repetitions, more or less exact, of the Lord's 
Prayer. One boy, however, the model boy of the 
school, persisted in his assertion that to the 'Notre 
Pere ' he had added something which answered to his 
teacher's description of a prayer for spiritual graces." 
After some persuasion he repeated, in all soberness and 
good faith, as an example of a prayer for spiritual 
grace, a few verses, of which the following is a literal 
translation. It is said that they may be found in many 
Catholic books of devotion : 

" As the Holy Virgin was walking through the fields, 
on her way she met St. John. 

" 'St. John, whence come you?' 

" ' I have just been saying my prayers/ 

" l Have you seen my Child Jesus ? ' 

" ' Yes, dear lady, I saw Him on the Cross, with nails 
in His hands, His side pierced, and on His head a 
crown of white thorns.' 

" Those who repeat this prayer morning and night 
will never see the flames of hell." * 

In seeking to meet the needs of such a people Mr. 
McAll was led to the discovery and adoption of a sys- 
tem of city evangelization which is in certain important 
respects peculiar to himself — a system whose phenom- 
enal success proves its value. Now the religious con- 
dition of the working-class, who compose so large a 
proportion of the population of modern American 

* A Cry from the Land of Calvin and Voltaire, pp. 169 and 170. 



172 TEE McALL MISSION. 

cities, does not differ so widely as one may suppose 
from that of the same class in Paris. Most of them 
have come, they or their parents, from the Continent of 
Europe, or from Catholic Ireland, and sixty per cent, 
of these are of Koman Catholic stock As we have 
observed, the American Protestant churches have thus 
far succeeded in getting hold of but a very small pro- 
portion of them. The Roman Church has probably 
succeeded better in maintaining its influence among its 
followers here than in France; yet it is certain that vast 
numbers of its people, and perhaps even greater num- 
bers of nominal Protestants, have been slipping away 
from the churches of their fathers into irreligion and 
unbelief. It will hardly be questioned that the work- 
ingmen of our towns and cities, in their religious con- 
dition, far more closely resemble the multitudes who 
are gathered into the salles of the McAll Mission than 
those who have composed the audiences of such men 
as Wesley, Whitfield, Nettleton, Kirk, Finney, or even 
Spurgeon and Moody. A study of the methods em- 
ployed in this remarkable movement ought therefore 
to be of value to all who are interested in that problem 
which stands among the foremost of our age, the relig- 
ious problem of American cities. 

The first to be noted and the most remarkable among 
the peculiarities of method adopted by the McAll Mis- 
sion, regards the character of the Salles, or Mission Halls, 
in which the meetings are held. Ordinary shops front- 
ing on frequented streets are usually rented and fitted up 
for this purpose. The halk are thus always compara- 
tively small. The largest in Paris has sittings for only 
450 persons; four or five others accommodate as many 
as 300 each; the rest seat from 80 to 260 each. Great 



THE McALL MISSION. 1?3 

advantages are claimed for this system. In the first place, 
such rooms are always easily secured in any part of the 
city where they are needed. Large halls, intended for 
auditoriums, are not easy to find — are not likely to be 
located where the Mission wants them, and are hard to 
get the entire control of ; but there are always and 
everywhere shops to be had at a reasonable rent. The 
ground floors of most of the buildings in Paris are ar- 
ranged for shops. This system also has the advantage 
of being much less expensive than the ordinary plan. 
Large halls cannot be leased so as to be used exclu- 
sively for mission purposes, without considerable ex- 
pense; it is still more costly to secure property and 
erect chapels or other buildings in the crowded dis- 
tricts where missions are most needed, but the rent of 
ordinary shops is much more easily managed. This is 
an important matter. One of the greatest difficulties 
in all benevolent and mission work arises from lack of 
funds. The field is always opening faster than it can 
be supplied with men and money. Owing to the high 
rents and expensive living, mission work in great cities 
is especially costly. It is one of the marvels of the 
McAH. Mission that so much has been accomplished at 
so small an expense. The whole cost of maintaining 
the ninety-nine mission halls, thirty-four of them in 
and about the costly city of Paris, during the year 
1886, including rents, salaries, new furniture, taxes, 
cost of administration, and every expense of every sort, 
was less than $80,000. There are single institutions in 
England and America whose annual expenditure is 
much greater. 

It is furthermore claimed in favor of the small meet- 
ings that they are much more easily equipped with 



174: THE McALL MISSION. 

speakers than great ones. A large audience can only 
be effectively addressed by a man of extraordinary 
power. Such men are rare and their services always 
difficult to secure. But a man of smaller calibre can do 
equally good work in a smaller meeting. Other things 
being equal, many little meetings are more useful than 
a few large ones. In the former the speaker is brought 
into closer contact with the hearer, his influence is 
more forcible, his message more personal, and each 
auditor involuntarily takes a larger share of it to him- 
self. In a small meeting it is also possible, as it never 
is in the case of a great assembly, to extend a cordial 
welcome to every one who enters, to observe the effect 
of the discourse upon all, and to follow up the preaching 
by personal effort. 

Shops have still another advantage over chapels and 
large halls for mission purposes : they are much more 
accessible to the throngs of the street. Made so as to 
be easily entered, but a single step from the sidewalk, 
they open their inviting doors to those who, fatigued 
with walking, desire a few moments' rest; to those who 
are prompted by curiosity to enter, and to all who for 
any reason care to go in. An illumination, suspended 
over the sidewalk before the door, announces, in blaz- 
ing letters, the name and character of the hall and the 
time of the meetings, and extends to all a cordial in- 
vitation to attend them. 

Another peculiarity of the McAll system is seen in 
the careful appointment of an outer and an inner door- 
keeper for every meeting. The former service is per- 
formed by a gentleman who stands on the sidewalk in 
front of the entrance and distributes printed invitations 
to the passers-by, enforcing their message as often as 



THE McALL MISSION. 175 

possible by a kind word of welcome. Those who enter 
are received by the inner doorkeeper, a lady, who 
politely welcomes each one as a guest, shows him a 
seat and provides him with a hymn-book. This lady— 
in the larger halls there are two of them — " is charged 
with the multifarious offices of inner gatekeeper, dep- 
uty hostess, hall policeman and superior, tract and New 
Testament distributer, general informant, and, later on, 
friend and visitor to those who accept the invitation 
handed them at the door and enter." Great pains are 
taken in filling these two appointments. Neither place 
is ever allowed to be vacant for a single meeting, and 
they are never occupied by servants or paid employes 
of the Mission, nor by people of the working-class, 
but by ladies and gentlemen who love the cause of 
Christ. It is held that the invitation of a gentleman is 
much more likely to be favorably received by the aver- 
age Parisian than that of a commoner, and that the 
gracious welcome of a lady is peculiarly pleasing. The 
lady doorkeepers are, moreover, found to be remark- 
ably successful in maintaining order in the meetings. 
Whenever some rough fellow shows symptoms of be- 
coming turbulent, a simple request from a lady is 
usually enough to subdue him. It touches the hearts 
of the poor to have those who are so greatly their 
superiors in wealth and station come to them as friends 
and helpers. The English and American residents of 
Paris have served largely in this capacity. 

The halls within are neatly but plainly furnished, so 
that the humblest auditors, while attracted by their cheer- 
fulness, may not be oppressed by unfamiliar elegance. 

A service of song, conducted by a lady who presides 
at the cabinet organ, invariably opens the meeting. 



176 THE McALL MISSION. 

The music of the Gospel has had marvellous power — ■ 
has given wings to the truth in Paris. France is said 
to be poor in song. She has the heavy, classic music 
of the cathedral, she has the opera, but there are few 
pure, simple songs for the people, either religious or 
secular. One of the most important services rendered 
by the McAU Mission to the French people has, there- 
fore, been the collection, translation, and introduction 
of Christian hymns. Mrs. McAll has done most of this 
work. The three hundred and more hymns that are 
now in use in the Mission include both popular " Gos- 
pel Songs," such as, " Hold the Fort " and " I love to 
tell the Story," and at the same time many of the choic- 
est lyrics of the church. 

After the song-service, which is greatly enjoyed, a 
passage of Scripture is read, and the meeting is then 
addressed in turn by two speakers. The addresses are 
short, not exceeding fifteen minutes each, and a hynin 
comes between them. All polemics are, by an inflex- 
ible rule, forbidden. Not one word derogatory to the 
Roman Catholic Church, or even to rationalism, must 
be spoken. The addresses are not to be learned, 
rhetorical, or philosophical; their single aim must be 
to present simply, clearly, vividly, and positively the 
great facts of our faith. The single, brief prayer of 
the evening follows the second address, and then, after 
the concluding hymn, the audience is dismissed, not 
with a benediction, but with a simple " Good-night," 
and a cordial invitation to come again. As the people 
go out, the workers have an opportunity to speak with 
any who seem especially interested, to hand them tracts 
or portions of the Scriptures, and to get their addresses 
in order to call upon them on the following day. 



THE McALL MISSION. 177 

The appointments for all the meetings are made with 
consummate skill from the central office. At least five 
persons must serve at every meeting that is held — the 
gentleman outside the door, the lady within, the organ- 
ist, and the two speakers. Each of these persons must 
accept his appointment, and a card from him must be 
received on which he agrees to be present at the speci- 
fied time and place. As over eighty meetings of this 
kind for adults, besides half as many more Sunday- 
schools, mothers' meetings, etc., must be provided for 
regularly every week, in Paris and its suburbs alone, it 
will readily be seen that the task of administration is 
no simple one; yet so skillfully is it performed that the 
whole system moves on with perfect smoothness, and 
it rarely happens that a single position is left unfilled. 

Nearly all the speakers are volunteers. They place 
themselves at the disposal of the Mission for a certain 
number of evenings each week or month, as the case 
may be, and are sent out wherever they are required. 
It is a labor of love, and they receive no pay beyond 
their carriage fare. About fifty pastors and one hun- 
dred and fifty laymen have given more or less of their 
time to such work in Paris during the past year. Great 
pains are taken to select for each field the speakers best 
adapted to its need. It is usually so arranged that one 
of the two speakers appointed for a place is decidedly 
stronger than the other. The second of the two ad- 
dresses is assigned to him, and he is given charge of 
the meeting. The doorkeepers usually remain at the 
same hall night after night, but the speakers are 
changed about from place to place. 

In several of the more important halls meetings are 
held every evening of the week at 8 or 8:15 o'clock. 
12 



178 THE McALL MISSION. 

Most of tlie others have two, three, or four meetings in 
the course of the week. A Sunday-school is held in 
nearly all of them on Sunday afternoon, and a chil- 
dren's meeting in the middle of the week. During 
eight months of the year working-meetings for women, 
similar to the mothers' meetings of England, are held 
every week in fifteen of the different halls. Besides 
these there are numerous prayer - meetings, Bible- 
classes, young men's and young women's meetings, 
Bible union meetings, fraternal society meeting, etc., 
etc. 

The converts of the mission are, so far as possible, 
persuaded to join the regular Protestant churches of 
the city, of which there are forty, " where the Gospel 
is preached in simplicity and in sincerity." * There 
are, however, many in whom the prejudice against the 
name " Protestant," and against everything churchly is 
so deeply rooted that they cannot be prevailed upon to 
take this step. Such persons are banded together in 
what are termed Societes Fraternelles. The following 
are the rules of one of these societies : 

1. " Every member must believe on the Lord Jesus 
Christ. 

2. " Every member engages to read every day a por- 
tion of Scripture. 

3. " Every member engages to pray for his associates, 
and to visit them in time of sickness. 

4. " Every member engages to pay a monthly contri- 
bution of at least one penny on behalf of the poor." 

" It meets every fortnight for prayer, edification, and 

* See Yesterday and To-day ; or, The Activities of French Protestants. 
A pamphlet by Westphal Castelman, with Introduction by Kev. A. 
F. Beard, D.D. Paris, 1885. 



THE McALL MISSION. 179 

testimony. New members are admitted after two 
months' probation as candidates ; absence unaccounted 
for during three months, or conduct contrary to the 
morals of the Gospel, are causes of erasure." It is in- 
tended by means of these organizations, not only to 
keep together, to instruct, and to train young believers, 
but to give them more intelligent notions of the nature 
of the Christian Church and their obligation to become 
its members. 

Contributions have never been asked for at the regu- 
lar evangelistic meetings. The conduct of the Church 
of Rome in France has been such as to give currency 
to the opinion that religion is simply a money-making 
matter. The freedom of the Gospel presented by the 
McAll Mission has been one of its strongest attractions. 
" How much to pay ? " is often a stranger's first ques- 
tion as he enters a hall. When offered a seat, he asks 
again, " What does it cost ? " And when a hymn-book 
is handed to him, he still expects to be charged for it. 
The idea that pure, disinterested love has invited him 
to come in and seeks his benefit, is one that he grasps 
slowly and with astonishment, but when he has grasped 
it, it moves him powerfully. 

From the nature of the case, and from the character 
of the methods employed, it is impossible to give in 
figures any approximate notion of the results accom- 
plished by the McAll Mission. We only know that the 
GosxDel is being preached in purity and fervor to audi- 
ences whose aggregate number is more than a million 
a year, and that multitudes of these are converted to 
the truth. How many, we have no means of telling. 
The converts are not counted, nor are they kept to- 
gether as members of any one organization. As fast 



180 THE McALL MISSION. 

as men are led to Christ they are handed over to the 
regular Protestant churches. The mission aims to be 
the ally, the feeder of the churches. It lives not for 
itself, but for them. The value of its services to French 
Protestantism and to the French people has been finely 
stated by one who speaks from an intimate acquaint- 
ance with the whole subject, the Rev. A. F. Beard, D.D., 
former pastor of the American Church in Paris. In 
his words we shall close this chapter : 

" It is to the credit of the Mission McAll that it forms 
no churches. It could perhaps introduce one more sect 
in France, and perhaps plant a little ' ism.' But it does 
not need to do this, and the broad-minded and clear- 
eyed man who gave this Mission its stamp belongs to 
Christianity. 

" It is hoped that the existing Protestant churches 
will reap rich harvests from this Mission. They have 
already the first-fruits. But aside from this, there is a 
relation of the McAll Mission to the churches which is 
very important. It has brought to the churches of 
France the inspiration of Christian aggressiveness, and 
the examples and illustrations of simple and successful 
methods. It is not speaking unkindly of the French 
churches to say that from the very necessities of past 
condition they had much to learn, both as to the spirit 
of aggressive Christian work and the methods of it. 
They had lived a repressed life. They had been for- 
bidden by law to evangelize. They had come, in the 
nature of the case, to a dignified and somewhat formal 
style of worship. The services were ' churchly.' 

" The McAll Mission has been a constant ' object- 
lesson,' illustrating how the Gospel may be earnestly 
preached in a popular way. It has given examples of 



THE McALL MISSION. 181 

Christian work in its various phases; it has shown even 
in the most difficult quarters that the people can be 
reached. That which Protestant pastors thought could 
not be done, has been done, and this has been a great 
awakening power of Christian aggression, both as to 
spirit and method. The conservative instincts of many 
good men have yielded to the influence. 

" Barriers between the unchurched and the churched 
have been taken down, and those who knew nothing of 
church life, except to distrust it, and who had an un- 
truthful idea of Christianity, have been made to feel 
that pastors are not unsympathetic persons who preach 
from a high pulpit of propriety to those who can 
pay for it, but are indeed their friends, true, earnest 
hearts who love them as souls; and that their words are 
not official commonplaces expected to be uttered, but 
utterances revealing hearts full of sympathy for man as 
man. If the McAll Mission had done no more than to 
come close to the people, and to those most needy, as an 
object-lesson to churches which have been the subject 
of repression and persecution, it would have justified 
its life. It becomes incidentally also a grand training- 
school for the future evangelism of France in its 
direct, simple, and sincere presentation of the Gospel. 
It meets the questions of the Papacy and of Infidelity 
not controversially, but by constant insistance of Gos- 
pel truths, so that thousands listen with sympathy 
whom controversy could never reach." * 

* Yesterday and To-day, Introduction, pp. 11-13. 



CHAPTEE VII. 

SUGGESTIONS REGARDING CHRISTIAN WORK FOR OUR CITIES. 

In our first three chapters attention has been called 
to the fact that the population of the United States 
has, for the past hundred years, been shifting with 
great rapidity from the rural parts into the towns. 
We have seen that the causes to which this change is 
due are still operative, and seem likely to remain so for 
many years; so that the cities of to-day, great as they 
appear, are small in comparison with what they will 
probably become. We have seen that their increase in 
size is accompanied by growing class distinctions; that 
the so-called " working-people," who compose the ma- 
jority of the population of modern towns, are separated 
from others, not only by many such differences in birth, 
education, occupation, and estate as divide the social 
classes of Europe, but by additional barriers of differ- 
ence in race, language, and religion. We have seen 
that in consequence of these differences, the American 
Protestant churches, upon whose high faith and its 
outcome in pure morality our civilization stands, have 
largely failed to reach the working- classes in the towns 
and have become too much the churches of the well-to- 
do, while the poor have been left to Catholicism, to 
irreligion, and to infidelity; and we have seen that the 
irreligion of these masses who chiefly people the cities 
has been naturally followed by a decay of morality in 
(182) 



CHRISTIAN WORK FOR OUR CITIES. 183 

the cities, and by such alarming symptoms of the disin- 
tegration of Christian civilization as a rapid increase of 
crime, of pauperism, of intemperance, and Sabbath 
desecration, and a growing spirit of anarchy among 
worldngmen. In the fourth and fifth chapters we ex- 
amined, as far as possible in so brief a space, the 
methods of religious work which prevail in London, 
and in the sixth those of the McAll Mission in Paris, 
hoping to receive from beyond the Atlantic some hints 
that may be helpful in the solution of our own difficult 
problems. The closing chapter will be devoted to a 
few suggestions concerning Christian work for our 
cities which are made in view of the gravity of the sit- 
uation here, and in the light of such wisdom as we 
have culled from abroad. 

"We remark, in the first place, that it seems tolerably 
certain, if the churches hope to reach the people, that 
they must greatly enlarge their working force in the 
towns and cities. The greatest of our troubles is, that 
far too little whole-hearted, thorough-going, thought- 
ful endeavor is put forth for the salvation of the poorer 
classes. " The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labor- 
ers are few." No more striking difference appears 
between the ways of our English brethren and our 
own, than the difference in the number of regular paid 
workers employed by an ordinary church in the two 
countries. Over against their corps of clergymen, mis- 
sionaries, Bible-readers, deaconesses, and trained nurses, 
stands our pastor, single - handed, or, in exceptional 
cases, with one or two assistants. Is it a wonder that 
they accomplish a vast deal more than we ? 

Most American ministers are obliged to depend for 
assistance entirely upon the voluntary aid of laymen. 



184 CHRISTIAN WORK FOR OUR CITIES. 

Now, although, such aid is of great importance, and 
can never be dispensed with, it is too fitful and ir- 
regular to be reliable except when well organized and 
closely superintended. The pastor has no more dif- 
ficult task than that of keeping his people engaged 
in efficient, systematic Christian work. If the increase 
of the regular force of the church were likely, by tak- 
ing the responsibility off from the shoulders of private 
members, to diminish the amount of voluntary service, 
it would not be an unmixed good; but we are confident 
that the opposite result would follow such an increase. 
As a general can get more fighting out of his soldiers 
when assisted by a staff of subordinate officers than if 
he attempted the command alone, so a pastor can best 
succeed in supplying work for every willing heart in 
the congregation when assisted in carrying out his 
plans by suitable helpers. Becent observation in Eng- 
land confirms this belief. Notwithstanding the number 
of paid workers, the rank and file of the people appear, 
to say the least, quite as deeply engaged in Christian 
service there as here. 

But there are certain branches of parochial work 
that cannot well be delegated to volunteers. In a large 
parish, duties of this kind are often enough, of them- 
selves alone, when done as well as they should be, to 
absorb more than the entire strength of one, or even 
two pastors. The larger the proportion of poor and 
humble people in the parish, the greater is its heed of 
thorough and laborious parish work. With all classes, 
personal, hand-to-hand presentation of the truth is 
doubtless worthy of far stronger emphasis than it has 
usually received; but this is especially the case with the 
lowly. The best results cannot be secrued among such 



CHRISTIAN WORK FOR OUR CITIES. 185 

people unless pulpit instruction is both prepared for 
and supplemented by abundant personal work. It is, 
therefore, frequently the case that the pastor of a 
church in a large parish has three or four times as much 
depending upon him alone as he can possibly perform. 
He is obliged to do what he can and let the rest go. 
This is a wasteful method. On the one hand, there is 
not enough parish work done to make the preaching 
properly effective, and, on the other hand, too much 
parish work is done to leave sufficient time for the 
preparation of sermons. It is not businesslike; it is 
not the way careful men proceed in other matters. 
Look at the Roman Catholics. How thoroughly well 
they man every point they take. Small indeed is the 
church of that communion which employs a single, un- 
assisted priest. Their great city churches where thou- 
sands of working-people resort on every Sabbath, are 
often served by half a score of priests. Does not their 
remarkable success in winning the poor and retaining 
their influence over the lowly, both here and in all other 
lands, suggest that there may be something in their 
methods worth our study ? 

A minister's assistants need not, however, be fully 
educated and equipped clergymen. One man, if he 
has his time, can do preaching enough for a whole 
church however large. In a poor parish, an uneducated 
person, full of the Holy Ghost, may be a much more 
efficient helper than a college graduate. It is a fact 
which experience has demonstrated over and over 
again, both here, in England, and in heathen lands, that 
the best workers among any class are those who have 
come up from among that class. If you wish to reach 
the patrons of the saloons, send them one whom the 



186 CHRISTIAN WORK FOB OUR CITIES. 

grace of God has saved from drunkenness, and how- 
ever much his uncouth language and his apparent 
irreverence may shock the wise and prudent, he will 
win men that the polished clergyman could not touch 
with the tip of his fingers. 

A London pastor who keeps a large number of mis- 
sionaries at work in his parish, remarked that one year 
he employed several theological students in this way. 
" How did it work ? " asked a friend. ' ' "Well," he replied 
hesitatingly, " it was good for the students." 

However much we may regret the existence of social 
classes in the United States, it is not wise to ignore the 
fact of their existence in our work. For regular pas- 
tors and preachers we want the best trained and most 
polished gentlemen that the schools can supply; but 
such men are not of the sort to get into the homes and 
hearts of the working-people. If they are to reach 
workingmen, they must be assisted by workingmen. 
This principle is especially important in dealing with 
our foreign population. It is not held that services for 
these people should always be conducted in their mo- 
ther tongue. Most of them understand English, and 
English is the language of their children; but they 
should be approached by men who are able to look at 
things from their stand-point. 

In Berlin the writer had the pleasure of repeated in- 
terviews with Count Piickler, an associate of Von 
Schliimbach, one of the most active and efficient work- 
ers in all Germany. He said that during a recent visit 
in the United States, he addressed, upon religious 
matters, large audiences of his countrymen in most of 
our principal cities, and that in connection with those 
addresses, young Germans were constantly coming to 



CHRISTIAN WORK FOR OUR CITIES. 187 

him with the remark : "If you will organize a Chris- 
tian association among us, we will support it gladly, 
"but we can't work with the Americans; they are too 
good for us. They regard us as the greatest sinners if we 
drink a glass of beer or have a fete on Sunday after- 
noon. They don't understand our ways, nor we theirs." 
Men who have been brought up to think that beer is 
as much a " staff of life " as bread itself, will not, of 
course, accept total abstinence as a Christian duty at 
the outset. After a prayer-meeting in the rooms of the 
Berlin Young Men's Christian Association, the young 
men commonly retire to a little restaurant connected 
with the establishment and there discuss a glass of beer 
together; and they have no notion whatever of any 
incongruity between the praying and the drinking. 
One reason why we have won to our churches and to 
our Saviour so few of the strangers within our gates, is 
because we have made so few rational efforts to win 
them. When a down-town church finds its old sup- 
porters moving away to the suburbs, instead of picking 
up its hymn-books and hastening after them; instead 
of selling its old building for a warehouse or a skating 
rink and abandoning the neighborhood with its increas- 
ing multitude of dying men, except so far as the Cath- 
olics may save them, to the saloons and to the devil, 
why should it not recognize the changed condition of 
affairs and equip itself for doing the new kind of work 
and reaping the new harvests that grow up rich and 
rank on every side, by employing workers whom nature 
and experience have fitted for that style of labor? 
Why should it not manfully stand its ground and ex- 
pect the truth to triumph ? The answer would be, the 
plan is impracticable, because a church so situated can 



138 CHRISTIAN WORK FOR OUR CITIES. 

scarcely pay its pastor, and cannot meet the expense of 
employing additional laborers. True enough! but is 
that a reason why the field should be abandoned? 
Does the burden of the work for such quarters belong- 
to none but the few religious people left in them ? Is 
the duty of all others limited to the wards in which 
they happen to live ? Let the whole Church in city 
and suburb rally around the old enterprises and fur- 
nish the means by endowment or otherwise with which 
they may vigorously push their pressing work. 

When men move from the crowded city to a pleasant 
suburb, or from a poorer to a more prosperous part of 
town, they do not leave behind them all responsibility 
for the moral and spiritual welfare of the region they 
forsake. Those who carry on their business and make 
their money in any city are under peculiar obligations 
to provide for the needs of that city; obligations from 
which they can never escape by choosing residences 
out of sight of its misery and beyond the sound of its 
sin. Business may often so crowd out population that 
old churches are wisely changed to new localities; but 
to abandon an old church when the neighborhood is as 
populous as ever, simply because the character of the 
people has changed, is a shame : it is false to the spirit 
of Christianity, for it is acting as though the Gospel 
were for the classes and not for the masses, and the mis- 
sion of the Church were special instead of universal. 

The men to be blamed, however, in such a case, are 
not those who cling to the old enterprise to the last 
and abandon it only when forced by necessity to do so. 
The ones most blameworthy are rather those who leave 
the old church in the days of its comparative prosperity 
and feel no more concerned for it thereafter. If we 



CHRISTIAN WORK FOR OUR CTTIES. 189 

are to save our cities, we must mend our ways. We 
must cease withdrawing our forces from the thickest 
and most important points in the battle with evil. * We 
must stop deserting every post of difficulty and danger. 
"He hath sounded forth a trumpet that shall never 
call retreat." The members of the great, rich churches 
that surround every city, must learn that they too have 
been bidden to deny themselves and take up their cross 
daily if they would be His disciples. Let this lesson 
be constantly impressed upon them until, in the light 
of the knowledge of it, continuous streams of conse- 
crated wealth and consecrated workers are poured from 
the fine avenues and fair suburbs into the haunts of 
vice and godlessness. 

We deem it a matter of greatest importance, especi- 
ally in regions chiefly pupulated by workingmen, that 
there should be a large amount of Christian visitation. 
The mere social or charitable call is not enough. Godly 
men and women anointed for service by the Holy 
Spirit should go and preach Christ Jesus in the homes 
of carelessness and irreligion. When the Word is thus 
wisely, affectionately, and earnestly presented, it does 
not fail to bring forth much fruit. Many Christian 
visitors make the mistake of giving simply an invitation 
to attend church and letting the matter rest there. 
Now this invitation, " Come to church," is not the great 
burden of our message to dying men. The Bible has 
not much to say about it ; it does not take hold on 
heart and conscience, especially where the person 
addressed has never known a religious training. It is 
easily fended off. Men will say that they are too tired 
to attend church on Sundays, that they have no suit- 
able clothing, that some one in the church has injured 



190 CHRISTIAN WORK FOR OUR CITIES. 

them, that they do not like the minister, that they can- 
not afford to pay for a seat, that family duties keep 
them at home. A dozen reasons are at hand to excuse 
them. But the great invitation, " Come to Christ/' is 
one against which no valid excuse can ever, under any 
circumstances, be urged, and an excuse that even seems 
plausible is hard to find. This invitation goes directly 
to the root of the matter ; it presents at once, clearly, 
forcibly, and in a way that cannot be avoided, the great 
issue between right and wrong, between the service of 
God and the service of this world and its ruler. We 
do not, of course, mean to decry the practice of urging 
men to come to church, but this is after all a secondary 
matter and should have a secondary place. Those who 
rely mainly on it in their Christian work to the neglect 
of the direct invitation of the Gospel are like men who 
lay aside the keen sword and go to battle armed only 
with blunt sticks. Non- church-goers rarely stay away 
from the house of God for lack of an invitation to 
attend. The doors of the sanctuary, the lips of God's 
people, cards, dodgers, newspapers, all repeat a thou- 
sand times the invitation, " Come." But the earnest 
personal call to Jesus Christ is one they rarely hear. 
Persuade men to come to Christ first and afterward 
there will be no difficulty in persuading them to come 
to church. 

American Christians may learn a valuable lesson from 
the work of the Sisters of Mercy and Deaconesses of 
England. "We have the best of authority for closely 
connecting the cure of the diseased body with that of 
the sin -sick soul. "Son, thy sins are forgiven thee; 
take up thy bed and walk." Gifts of healing came 
along with those of preaching in the days of the 



CHRISTIAN WORK FOR OUR CITIES. 191 

apostles. The chief business of the church is, beyond 
a doubt, that of saving souls; but has she not gone too 
far in making that her only calling? When sickness 
breaks in upon a workingman's narrow home, it is a 
heavy affliction: helpers are few; accommodations are 
poor and scanty; there is little knowledge of disease 
and its treatment; the invalid fights for life at fearful 
disadvantage. "Where one dies for want of medicine, 
ten perish for lack of care and nursing. 

If the church had a corps of saintly women trained 
to nursing, so that she could send one of them like a 
ministering angel into every afflicted household, by 
what cords of love she might bind its members to her- 
self ! When men are in trouble their hearts are soft; 
the love you show them then, and the help you offer, 
are not soon forgotten. Cold victuals and old clothes 
may be acceptable when people are hard pressed 
and the wolf is at the door; but how rarely have such 
presents brought the receiver by a single step nearer to 
the Saviour. Even the giving of money is a danger- 
ous experiment: while affording to the needy tempo- 
rary relief, it is apt to do so at the heavy cost of self- 
respect, and to push them on toward pauperism. But 
when one offers himself or some loved member of his 
family to the service of the poor, there is a gift which 
can neither degrade nor pauperize, but can only enno- 
ble and bless those that give and those that take. 

Speaking of sisterhoods, Bishop Ireland, of Minne- 
sota, says : " We claim peculiar advantages from the 
system of Catholic charities. It secures in the service 
of charity what is most valuable and most difficult to 
be obtained, — the sweetness and tenderness of love. It 
is not bread or medicine that is most prized by the in- 



192 CHRISTIAN WORK FOR OUR CITIES. 

digent and the sick : it is the smile and the soft caress, 
the kind, hopeful word. The heart rather than the 
mouth must be fed : the soul rather than the body 
must be warmed. All this is done Yvithout effort, and 
is done with exquisite delicacy, when the heart of the 
laborer is in his work. The Catholic brother and sis- 
ter are inspired by love. They could not endure the 
religious lif e unless the heart were all on fire with love : 
love streams from the heart and ignites all other hearts 
coming within the circle of its influence/' 

Shall the advantages of such a system be monopo- 
lized by those who have so little else to offer ? "Where 
can the churches find a better way of winning to them- 
selves and their Lord, the hearts of His poor? Were 
it needful, they would do well to fill their windows with 
plain glass and let their floors go bare, rather than pass 
heedlessly by such open doors of opportunity. 

II. A few words as to the nature and frequency of re- 
ligious services which should be provided for the 
masses. A religion for working-people must be vital. 
It must present in their simplest, most direct form the 
great verities of our faith. The less they realize it, the 
more true it is that they hunger for the bread of life. 
That service is, therefore, best adapted to their needs 
which provides the fullest supply, not of literature, 
philosophy, theology, art or music, but plain Gospel 
truth. Now the truth never comes to men so power- 
fully as from the lips of a fellow-man in whom it lives 
and who lives in it : no set form of words can so lif t up 
the soul of the congregation into fellowship with God, 
as the spontaneous prayer of one whose petitions spring 
from the suggestion of God's indwelling Spirit. Tak- 
ing both at their best, the non-liturgical churches, there- 



CHRISTIAN WORK FOR OUR CITIES. 193 

fore, seem to us better adapted to the needs of the 
common people than those which lean on the staff of a 
ritual; and it is our impression, although this would 
hardly be acknowledged by a " churchman," that the 
religious history and life of England verifies this posi- 
tion. Notwithstanding the great advantages that the 
Established Church has had in dealing with the com- 
mon people because of its endowments and prestige, 
the fact that it need not appeal to its adherents for 
financial support, and that it has much more money to 
spend for charity, — it will hardly be denied that the 
nonconformists of various sects have been more suc- 
cessful in engaging the hearts of the humbler classes 
than the Establishment. 

On the other hand, a cripple can walk better with a 
staff than without it. If there be no spiritual life in 
the church or its minister, the service is far more ac- 
ceptable when it takes the form of a majestic ritual 
which the coldest of readers cannot altogether rob of 
truth and strength, than when it depends for insiDira- 
tion and helpfulness upon the utterances of one whose 
prayers have no uplifting power. Heat will not come 
out of one who is cold, nor can a dead man give life to 
others. The church without the liturgy, if it be dead, 
is the deadest of all dead churches. The first great 
requisite for success with the people, the lack of which 
cannot be supplied by any kind of attraction or con- 
trivance, is, therefore, life. 

There can be no doubt, however, that the methods of 
service which are wisest, vary with the varying condi- 
tions of those for whom they are designed. What 
suited the keen logicians of the New England farms a 
century ago would hardly be the thing for a popular 
13 



194 CHRISTIAN WORE FOR OUR CITIES. 

audience in a modern factory town. We may well ask 
ourselves whether the elements of instruction and per- 
suasion have not, even now, places of too great relative 
prominence in the Sabbath service of most churches in 
comparison with that which is given to worship. There 
is something deeply impressive in the fondness of the 
Englishman for his church. He is, if we are not mis- 
taken, a much more faithful and punctual attendant at 
the house of God than the American. He does not go 
for the sake of fashion and vanity, for he dresses plain- 
ly, nor for the sake of hearing the sermon, for he makes 
it a matter of secondary importance ; but for the 
service. Into this he enters with all his heart. People 
love a service in which they feel that they have a per- 
sonal part. Is not the minister's part too great with 
us, and that of the people too small? Have we not 
made a mistake, for instance, in giving up the response 
to prayer and hymn, the audible " amen," whereby each 
worshipper endorses and adopts for himself the peti- 
tion of the leader ? 

Singing is the one way in which a whole congrega- 
tion may most freely and naturally unite in the worship 
of God. It exalts the feelings, warms the affections, 
and flings open to the truth the chambers of the soul. 
In thousands of cases a song has been the first thing 
to touch a man's heart. It is said that Wesleyanism, 
the religion of common people, " sang its way around 
the world." In order to reach the masses, there must 
be plenty of good music in which all can engage. 
Many London churches do not think five congrega- 
tional hymns too many for an ordinary morning service. 
"What could be more quenching to the spirit of praise 
than the custom of sitting in one's seat and listening to 



CHRISTIAN WORK FOR OUR CITIES. 195 

the artistic trills and quavers of mercenary musicians, 
instead of standing up to " praise the living God with 
heart and soul and voice " ? 

Our English brethren do well in having more fre- 
quent religious services than we. In order that people 
may feel deeply, think strongly, and act rightly in mat- 
ters of religion, its great truths should be kept con- 
stantly before them. As the protracted meeting 
nourishes the revival spirit, so continuous meetings give 
to religion a perennial life. Frequent services are of 
special importance among humble people. John "Wes- 
ley used to say that the idea of holding meetings less 
often than every day originated with the devil. A 
large part of the success with which the Salvation Army 
retains its influence over those that join it, is due to the 
frequency of its services. The evenings of working- 
men are largely on their hands; their homes are not 
attractive; they have little taste for reading; after the 
monotonous toil and confinement of the day they natu- 
rally spend the evening abroad. The cheap places of 
public amusement whose open doors invite them, are 
likely to be most unwholesome. When a church stands 
in the midst of such a populace, it ought never to be 
closed of an evening. Not that the people should be 
urged to attend church every day in the week, but that 
there should always be some sort of a bright, short, in- 
teresting service that they can attend if they choose. 
Here is one of the points in which we see the pressing 
need of increasing the working force of the city 
churches. 

The character of such daily services could wisely be 
diversified so as to suit the various elements in the con- 
gregation. There are some who enjoy simple melodies 



196 CHRISTIAN WORK FOR OUR CITIES. 

like those introduced by Mr. Sankey, brief prayers, 
stirring testimonies, and short, pointed appeals. An- 
other element is better helped by services in which 
there is more of refinement and less of enthusiasm. No 
one style will suit all sorts and conditions of men 
equally well. Why, then, should the church conduct 
every meeting on the same plan ? Let some of them 
take the popular complexion and use the Gospel songs. 
Let others be of more conservative type, and make use 
of the classical hymns of the church. A mid-week 
service, with preaching or lecture, would doubtless be 
as useful here as it has proven in England. The young 
people with their special prayer-meeting, or their " So- 
ciety of Christian Endeavor," could make good use of 
one evening in the week, and a Gospel temperance 
meeting may well be planted in the midst of the drunk- 
enness of every Saturday night. 

But not only should religious meetings be more fre- 
quent than has usually been the case, they should also, 
for the best effect, be somewhat scattered throughout 
the community which it is desired to reach. It is an 
opinion which we believe to be daily growing upon the 
convictions of those most interested in such matters, 
that a given amount of religious energy is better and 
more economically expended in many small meetings 
than in few large ones.* "While concentration is the 
watchword of modern life in other things, that of re- 
ligion seems to be dispersion. The more thoroughly 
the leaven is mixed with the meal, the sooner the whole 

* Sec Report of Special Committee on City Evangelization, made 
to the American Home Missionary Society at their annual meeting at 
Saratoga, June 8, 1887, printed iu full in the Christian Unim, 
June 10. 



CHRISTIAN WORE FOR OUR CITIES. 197 

will be leavened; the more widely scattered the seed, 
the more abundant the harvest; many little nets catch 
more than few great ones. Those who could never be 
persuaded to attend church will readily consent to go 
into the little meeting in the neighbor's parlor. But 
such little meetings are the very places where the per- 
sonal claims of Jesus Christ may be most closely, pow- 
erfully, and effectively presented. They afford the 
church an unsurpassed opportunity for setting its most 
consecrated members at work. Heart comes closer to 
heart in the little room. Hand grasps hand; kind and 
helpful words are easily spoken. It is a good place for 
the young convert's first confession of Christ. There 
is little opportunity for unhealthful excitement. The 
minimum of effort brings the maximum of result. The 
days of monster evangelistic meetings we believe to be 
numbered; the simpler, quieter, and more continuous 
methods have proven more effective. The new evan- 
gelism does not build gigantic tabernacles to be crowded 
for a month and then forsaken, but it plants permanent 
churches in needy districts, which stretch out their 
hands on all sides through multitudes of little meetings 
held in halls, shops, school-buildings, homes, and tene- 
ment-houses, to gather to themselves multitudes of such 
as shall be saved. 

It is a question worth considering whether we could 
not make more frequent an4 effective use than we do 
of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Although 
this sacred ordinance is by no means a mass, is not a 
sacrifice, and has in itself no purifying power for the 
sake of which we sinners have frequent need of it, — it 
is a visible memorial of the great sacrifice whereby we 
live. Seeing that it speaks of the one central event of 



198 CHRISTIAN WORK FOR OUR CITIES. 

history and religion with a power and eloquence which 
no human lips can rival, is there any reason why its 
symbolic voice should not be heard oftener and more 
openly ? 

III. The work of the English churches suggests, as a 
third topic for remark, the efficiency of the parish 
system. 

There are two distinct systems on which the religious 
life of a town may proceed : either the town may be 
divided into a number of distinct districts or parishes, 
a church planted in each and that church made solely 
responsible for the religious instruction of every house- 
hold in its own parish — or, the churches may be located 
without special reference to the needs of their imme- 
diate neighborhood, in such spots as appear desirable, 
and may make it their aim to attract to themselves as 
many as possible from all parts of the town, each church 
counting as parishioners those and those only who 
accept its invitations and attend its services. The 
former is the system practiced, in theory at least, by 
the Established Church of England. The latter is that 
which generally prevails among the Nonconformists 
and in the United States. The immense advantages of 
the parish system in conducting the religious work of 
large towns are obvious. This system places a distinct 
and definite work before every church and thus gives 
to all religious effort the vast advantage of having a 
specific rather than a general aim. It has been well 
said that "-every general arrangement with reference 
to a whole is impotent in comparison with a special 
arrangement adapted to the needs of a special part." 
It makes somebody directly responsible for every fam- 
ily in the city, and the whole field may thus be thor- 



CHRISTIAN WORE FOR OUR CITIES. 199 

oughly overlooked by the cliurclies ; the moral and 
religious condition of every household in it known; the 
exact number of irreligious persons discovered, and 
prayer and effort put forth for the conversion of each. 
The inroads of vice maybe watched; temptation nipped 
in the bud; evil prevented from massing itself and thus 
increasing its power — and the whole body of society 
may be thoroughly permeated with the salt of Christian 
influence. Above all, the parish system of church work 
surpasses the other because it leaves little or no room 
for those rivalries and jealousies between competing 
churches which are the shame of Protestantism. Its 
value has been powerfully set forth by Dr. Chalmers 
and was strikingly illustrated by him both in Glasgow 
and Edinburgh. Scarcely a man since the days of the 
Apostles could have spoken with greater weight of 
authority upon such a theme than he. 

The other system, the one that prevails almost exclu- 
sively in our own cities, builds up, indeed, large and 
flourishing churches which worship in beautiful build- 
ings, listen to eloquent sermons, and make generous 
contributions to missions ; but the trouble with them 
is, that their work is superficial and partial; they deal 
with only a small, selected portion of the population 
and leave the rest uncared for. Such churches minis- 
ter to none except those who choose to attend them, 
but they who stand in greatest need of their ministra- 
tions are the last to make such a choice. 

"In proportion to our want of food is our desire for 
food; but it is not so with our want of knowledge or 
virtue or religion. The more destitute we are of these 
last, the more dead we are to any inclination for them. 
In moving through the lanes and recesses of a long- 



200 CHRISTIAN WORK FOR OUR CITIES. 

neglected population, it would be found of the fearful 
multitude that not only is their acquaintance with the 
Gospel extinguished, but their desire to obtain an ac- 
quaintance with it is also extinguished." * 

Such people will never come to church of their own 
accord, and consequently can never be reached by a 
church that counts as belonging to its parish and under 
its charge, those families and those only whose mem- 
bers are attracted to its services. There are tens of 
thousands in every great city in the land whom no 
possible degree of attractiveness could persuade to at- 
tend church. Make your seats as free, your invitations 
as cordial, your house as beautiful, your music as fine, 
and your preaching as eloquent as you please — they 
will not think of coming. Could a saloon-keeper, by 
refurnishing his place and improving the quality of his 
liquors, persuade the Christian public to become his 
patrons ? 

It is true that the more you increase your attractions 
the larger your audiences will become and the more 
flourishing your church will appear, but none of this 
increase will come from the class which needs the Gos- 
pel most. How close is the application to our cities, of 
words which Chalmers uttered more than half a century 
ago: 

"There is room enough for apparent Christianity 
and real corruption to be gaining ground together, 
each in their respective territories ; and the delu- 
sion is that while many are rejoicing in the s} 7 mptoms 
of our country's reformation, the country itself may 



* The Christian and Civic Economy of Large Towns. Thomas 
Chalmers, Glasgow, p. 62. 



CHRISTIAN WORK FOR OUR CITIES. 201 

be ripening for some awful crisis by which to mark 
in characters of vengeance the consummation of its 
guilt." * 

It is high time to cease depending upon the attract- 
iveness of songs and sermons in cushioned and carpeted 
sanctuaries: if we are to save the lost we must go out j 
and seek them, for they will not come back of them- 
selves. Many have reached this conclusion and have 
attempted going out into the highways and compelling 
men to come in, but they have met an almost insuperable 
difficulty at the outset. Being resolved to go, the first 
question is, where ? The city has tens and hundreds 
of thousands of non church-goers living everywhere. 
The individual church is but a little company of a f ew 
hundred and contains no more than a score or two of 
active and willing workers who are widely scattered. 
These workers usually proceed without much method in 
their attempt to bring non- church-goers to the sanctu- 
ary; their efforts are consequently scattered and largely 
wasted. The very vastness of the work that presses in 
upon every side paralyzes many and many a city church 
into a state of languor and inactivity. The sense of 
their utter inability to lift the whole awful burden of 
the great towns' sin and sorrow is so overpowering, that 
they grow discouraged, attempt none of it, and are fain 
to be contented with waging the inglorious warfare of 
self-preservation. 

Now this difficulty could surely be overcome if each 
church would make its work strictly local. Instead of 
vainly striving to shoulder the whole community at 



* Ibid, p. 66. 



/ 



202 CHRISTIAN WORK FOR OUR CITIES. 

once, or standing idle and despondent at its inability to 
do so, let every church take charge of a fixed and defi- 
nite portion of the town, of a size proportionate to its 
strength, and then let it, in direct and systematic 
fashion, concentrate its efforts upon that corner of the 
vineyard. " Thus a church of moderate ability, with- 
out members of special talent or great wealth, and 
without peculiarly favorable circumstances, can, as has 
been proved repeatedly by experience, sensibly elevate 
the moral, intellectual, and physical condition of any 
community to which it puts its hand." 

It may seem strange that a method of work so obvi- 
ously wise and effective should so rarely be put into 
practice by our American churches; but the reason for 
this is, alas ! equally obvious. The forces of the king- 
dom of heaven are scattered and divided between a 
score and more of rival sects, no one of which will al- 
low to another exclusive right to any portion of terri- 
tory, no matter how little it may be doing there itself. 
One cannot start a mission Sunday-school in a destitute 
neighborhood without being suspected of trying to 
seize the ground, not for Christ's sake, but for some 
denomination. The few Christian people living in such 
a community who would naturally be expected to sup- 
port the new movement, cannot do so, because they be- 
long to churches of half a dozen different orders. They 
will not heartily enter into any enterprise except one 
that is called by their own name. If you attempt to 
call upon the families of some neglected and godless 
quarter of the town, and to press upon its ignorant and 
reckless people the claims of God and the invitations 
of His church, you must be very careful to ascertain, 
before visiting a household, that none of its children 



CHRISTIAN WORE FOR OUR CITIES. 203 

attend any Sunday-school except your own; for, if so, 
alas ! you are a proselyter. 

In their influence upon the common people, especially 
those of foreign birth, the schisms of our churches are 
productive of incalculable mischief. In contrast with 
our division, the Roman Catholic Church points tri- 
umphantly to her unity. Her point is well taken by 
them, for they do not see and cannot realize that her 
unity is that of death, all agreeing because one thinks 
for all; while underneath our seeming diversity there 
thrills and throbs the mightier unity of life. Amid the 
various calls and invitations of the different churches 
they do not detect one spirit and a single aim. The 
voice of the bride is so broken, confused, and bewilder- 
ing, that they fail to hear her, and over her sectaries 
and schisms, myriads go stumbling headlong into hell. 

If the authority of every Christian in the city — nay, 
of the church universal — could be concentrated for a 
man into the single voice of his own parish church, how 
mightily would her summons appeal to his heart ! Has 
not the time fully come, brethren, when every man who 
loves the kingdom of God should set his face like a 
flint against the present disastrous system — a system 
based upon the untenable and long since abandoned 
position that discipleship and fellowship depend upon 
agreement in doctrinal opinion rather than upon common 
participation in the life of Christ ? "Who is so foolish in 
our day as to suppose that living, thinking men can all 
be made to think alike ? As to the great facts of our 
faith, we are already one. As to minor points of polity 
and doctrine, there is neither hope nor need that we 
should agree. "Why not agree to disagree ? The times 
demand no new sest which shall attempt to swallow 



204 CHRISTIAN WORK FOR OUR CITIES. 

up all others; no national church or interference of 
civil authority in ecclesiastical matters, but a federation 
of all churches that believe Jesus Christ is the Son of 
God, of all that love His name and daily pray " Thy 
kingdom come." It is not enough that the denomina- 
tions have friendly feelings toward one another, and 
exchange compliments in occasional union meetings; 
the exigencies of these days call aloud for nothing less 
than a unity of plan on the part of the entire working 
force of Christ's Church. Let us cease our rivalry and 
wrangling, put away our absurd pretensions to a mo- 
nopoly of wisdom and truth, divide the territory among 
us, and put our shoulder to the work; for the day is 
far spent, the night is at hand, and the world, still 
cursed by sin and darkened by death, groaneth and 
travaileth, weary with long waiting for the day of her 
redemption. 

IY. Our final suggestion shall be the importance of 
cultivating in the churches a spirit of sympathy with 
workingmen which is broader, truer, and more pro- 
foundly Christian than that now prevalent. Christi- 
anity, in its onward march, has obliterated invidious 
distinctions between Jew and Greek, male and female, 
bond and free; still more, would one expect to find in 
the body of the church, at least, an equal footing for 
rich and poor. Yet such is not the case. 

"When one remembers to what condition of life the 
great Head of the Church chose to be born, how that a 
stable was the scene of His nativity, Hi3 kindred and 
friends were but peasants, and He himself a common 
carpenter, it appears incredible that people of lowly 
birth should ever have been disdained by His followers; 
yet many professing Christians do thoroughly ignore 



CHRISTIAN WORK FOR OUR CITIES. 205 

the bonds of human brotherhood which unite them 
with the working-people; they give themselves no con- 
cern for their physical, intellectual, or spiritual welfare; 
they take all pains to exclude themselves from their 
society, both at home and in the house of God; they 
avoid all contact with them, except that which must 
exist between master and servant, and they behave as 
though they esteemed them an inferior sort of creature 
scarcely to be mentioned in the same breath with 
themselves and those of their rank. Of such persons, 
we scarcely need observe that they have not the spirit 
of Christ, for Christian love is universal; it overleaps 
every fence of class distinction, and receives all sorts 
and conditions of men into its broad embrace. But a 
very large proportion of the efforts of those who do 
spend their time and money for the poorer classes, are 
painfully barren of permanent and substantial benefit, 
because the spirit from which such efforts spring, and 
with which- they are thoroughly permeated, is some- 
thing less and lower than the true Christian spirit. 

What with their missions, ragged-schools, refuges, 
tract distributers, hospitals, and charitable institutions 
of all sorts, the number of enterprises supported by 
Christian philanthropy in London is well-nigh count- 
less; yet it cannot be said that the Christian religion — 
not, at any rate, that the Christian Church — has a very 
strong hold upon the working-people in that city; they 
are poorly represented in the churches, compared with 
the middle and upper classes. 

The writer had a long talk on the subject with Mr. 
J. J. Dent, General Secretary for England of the 
"Workingmen's Club and Institute Union. He is a 
keen, clearly-speaking, thoughtful man, is thoroughly 



206 CHRISTIAN WORK FOR OUR CITIES. 

conversant with the ways and opinions of the working- 
classes, and as good an authority on such matters 
as could be found. He said that among Protestants 
in London and in all English towns, the work- 
ing-people are largely alienated from the churches, 
especially from the Established Church, but also from 
those of the Nonconformists. He gave it as his opinion 
that the chief reason for such alienation was no lack of 
attention paid by the churches to the workingman, no 
lack of missions and charities, but it was rather owing 
to the aristocratic spirit in which the men conceive 
themselves to be approached by the churches. 

"The workingmen," said he, "do not want to be 
treated as proteges or paupers ; they cannot bear to 
be patronized ; all they ask of religious people is to be 
treated on the basis of humanity and justice." 

The spirit of the patron is not that of the brother; 
it does not spring from love, but from some mixed 
motive: partly sense of duty, partly mean arrogance 
and base conceit. It implies an inherent superiority on 
the part of one man over another, an implication false 
to a cardinal doctrine of Christianity — the glorious truth 
that the human soul is in and of itself precious, and, 
like the diamond, takes its value not from setting, cut, 
or polish, but from intrinsic worth. Who can blame 
an honest, self-respecting man if he fails to appreciate 
favors that are bound up with implied insults, if he 
receives religion coldly when she presents herself in 
the hateful garb of patronage ? 

It is hard to see how one can present the truths of 
the Gospel in the patronizing spirit without incurring 
the gravest suspicions of insincerity. Can you offer to 
share with a man on equal terms that which you really 



CHRISTIAN WORK FOR OUR CITIES. 207 

believe to be your best possession and your highest 
dignity, and at the same time look down upon him as 
an inferior ? Whoever hopes to lead any man to Christ 
must approach him in the affectionate and respectful 
spirit of a brother. Y^hen we offer him our greatest 
and best things, let us not withhold small ones. If he 
be permitted to share with us the paternal love of God, 
the sacrifice of Christ, and the power of the Holy 
Ghost — shall we count our cushions, carpets, organs, 
and comfortable pews too good for him ? Shall we 
banish him to cheerless chapels with bare floor and 
hard seats? If we are sincere in inviting him to 
be a brother in Christ, we must treat him and his chil- 
dren as members of the family when he accepts the 
invitation. 

Our interest in the working-classes must be more 
comprehensive. A true Christian love does not confine 
itself to one's spiritual and eternal interests, but ex- 
tends to the whole man. Too often has the Church 
behaved toward the masses as though there were noth- 
ing about them worth considering except their immor- 
tal souls. Efforts are put forth for their conversion, 
tracts distributed, special meetings held, they are urged 
to come to Christ and to join His church, but interest 
in them ends here. 

" You promise us plenty of heaven hereafter, but you 
rob us of all but a pittance here," cries the socialist 
bitterly. " Keep your heaven to yourself and give us 
a fair share of the good things of this life." 

Has he not some slender thread of truth on which 
to hang this scathing charge ? It is quite impossible 
to make one believe that you love his soul when you 
seem indifferent to his body; that you are anxious to 



208 CHRISTIAN WORK FOR OUR CITIES. 

liave him secure a heavenly home when you give your- 
self no concern regarding his earthly dwelling. Men 
know that a real love confines itself to no part or por- 
tion of the one beloved, but includes his whole lif e and 
being. Now the workingman, beholding this apparently 
one-sided sort of interest in him, casts about for an ex- 
planation, and it is hot hard to find a plausible one. 
There are many rival churches in a community, every 
one of which is ambitious to become the largest and 
most prosperous. All are eager to add as many as pos- 
sible to their roll of membership. They would like to 
count him as a convert. Is this why they are so 
anxious for the salvation of his soul ? 

The English are wiser than we, in that they have 
established more points of contact between the church 
and the common people. If we are brothers in religion, 
we are brothers in all things. Why should not the 
brotherhood of the church assist the poor woman in 
buying tea or coal, the unemployed laborer in find- 
ing a situation, or provide the easily-tempted lad with 
some healthful recreation for his evenings? "Why 
should it not encourage thrift by. starting penny banks 
and friendly societies where they are needed ? Why 
not evening-schools, cheap concerts, exhibitions of art 
and popular lectures, as well as prayer-meetings and 
Gospel services? 

Those who work most wisely among the poor are 
sparing with their alms and lavish with their friend- 
ship. To help a man by the gift of money, food, or 
clothing, is almost certain to degrade him; to help him 
by the gift of time, thought, and brotherly love, up- 
lifts him. The people should always be taught and 
expected to bear a share in the expense of any enter- 



CHRISTIAN WORK FOR OUR CITIES. 209 

prise undertaken for their benefit. Whatever is free is 
lightly valued. 

The working-classes are doubtless better situated in 
the United States than in any other country on earth, 
and they are perhaps as prosperous, on the whole, to- 
day, as they have been in former years; yet how widely 
removed is their condition from what one would choose 
for himself or a loved member of his family ! Those 
who practice the golden rule are not satisfied with their 
situation : — the degrading machine toil, not too hard, 
perhaps, but tediously dull ; the close, disagreeable 
homes; the sharp, continuous struggle with poverty; 
the dreadful anxiety, like that of a man who walks in 
the dark on a precipice's edge, caused by the knowl- 
edge that some business depression, strike, or accident 
may any day rob him of work, and bring him to desti- 
tution ; the hopelessness of life that begins to come 
upon us, reaching the poorest first : as the nation grows 
older, its lines harden into fixedness, and the doors of 
opportunity that once made every young man's path so 
full of hope, close one by one, leaving it more and 
more difficult for him to rise out of the station to which 
he was born; above all, the inevitable blindness and 
deafness to those things that give us so much of our 
best enjoyment : art, music, and letters, — the world of 
beauty and the world of thought. "When men so 
situated, in dim, half instinctive consciousness of a 
royal birthright which hard necessity has forced 
them to barter for the mess of pottage, try to rise 
and regain their priceless inheritance, shall the Church 
turn toward them the cold shoulder? God forbid! 
Though their methods be not those of wisdom ; 
though they blindly follow worthless leaders, and vio- 
14 



210 CHRISTIAN WORE FOR OUR CITIES. 

lently blame the guiltless for their misfortunes, let us 
never scorn them nor their cause, but hear them re- 
spectfully and cordially, giving our best wisdom to the 
solution of their difficulties. As soon as these people 
know that we love them, so soon shall we begin to win 
them. 

No words can tell, brethren, no words can commence 
to tell how tremendous is the importance of giving to 
our working-people the knowledge of God through 
Jesus Christ. As water cannot be boiled by applying 
heat at the top, so society cannot be saved by a relig- 
ion of the upper classes. The present religious condi- 
tion of the cities is of necessity a temporary one : the 
fire must burn down to the bottom or the fire must go 
out. Christianity, from the nature of it, cannot remain 
the religion of a class : it must be the religion of the 
whole people or that of none. There have been Chris- 
tian nations before now from whom the light of the 
knowledge of God has faded quite away. 

The men that rule, in our country at least, usually 
spring from the ranks of the lowly. They are not deli- 
cately brought up nor clothed in soft raiment. They 
are men who inherit iron constitutions from fathers 
used to toil and sweat ; men whom early hardships 
have taught patience and endurance ; who amid the 
difficulties of poverty have grown strong with strug- 
gling. The humble homes which have hitherto sent 
out such men have oftenest been homes of piety, famil- 
iar with God's word and the voice of prayer. But 
these humble homes, both in the country and in town, 
have now for many years been fast passing into the 
hands of strangers. What if our future leaders are 
being reared in Roman Catholic households, and cradled 



CHRISTIAN WORK FOR OUR CITIES. 211 

by the firesides of unbelief ? "Woe to the nation whose 
cottages have no Bibles ! 

The poor and the stranger must be taught to know 
the God of our fathers : it is our only hope. This only 
hope is a large hope. The Gospel was made for the 
poor — they need it, they hunger for it, they will receive 
it when it is faithfully preached. The Church is bidden 
to go with her messages of life. There is a promise 
that the Word will not be fruitless. Wherever Christ 
goes, Christ wins. He has done greater things than 
these. The chief danger lies in the unbelief of His 
people; in the shameful assumption that because the 
poor are foreigners and Catholics they cannot be 
brought to Jesus. Those who have tried it know better. 
" All things are possible with God." 

Have you no vision, dear reader, of a man who 
stands amid the bustling multitudes of some great 
town, rough -coated and begrimed by the touch of toil, 
but with a j>leading face and a beckoning hand ? And 
does there never reach your ears above all the noises of 
the city's uproar, a cry, " Come and help us ! " The cry 
of humanity is the call of God. " He that hath an ear 
to hear, let him hear." 



INDEX. 



PAGE 

Age of groat cities 18 

Agriculture, its changed 

methods 49 

American cities, future 

growth of 53 

Anglo-Saxon race, growth of 67 

Antwerp, growth of 25 

Aqueducts of Rome 35 

Artisan's habitation in Eras- 
mus' day 38 

Bar-maids 121 

Bnrnett, Rev. Samuel A.. 128, 130 

Beard, Rev. A. F 180 

Bede : his reference to Lon- 
don 20 

Beer among the Germans 187 

B.lgium, increase of cities in 25 

Density of population. 26 

Berlin, size and growth.. 26 

Churches of. 84 

Bible-Classes 113 

Birth-rate among rich and 
poor, contrasted 45 

Excess over death-rate in 

London 46 

Booth, William 160 

Boston : compared with Lon- 
don in 16th century 20 

Britannia Row Mission 139 

Brown, Archibald G. 145, 147, 154 



PAGE 

Brussels, growth of 25 

Business depression, periods 
of, their influence upon 
workingmen 97 

Cameron of Lochiel 24 

Carnegie, Andrew 47 

Cathedrals, their office 110 

Catholic charities 191 

Catholic Church, growth and 

influence of 85-87 

Catholic Church in France 165 
Catholics, Roman, ratio of, to 
Protestants among Ger- 
man Americans 75 

Among foreign-born 76 

Census of England and Wales 21 

Census of Scotland 63 

Census of U. S. See Tenth 
Census. 

Centrifugal social forces 33 

Chalmers, Thomas.... 32, 199, 200 
Charities, their social influ- 
ence 45 

Chicago : compared with Lon- 
don in the 17th century.. 20 
Its rate of increase compar- 
ed with that of Glasgow 24 
Church accommodations in 89 
Choral services of Cathedrals 111 
(213) 



214 



INDEX. 



PAGE 

Christianity the support of 
modern civilization — 79-81 

Christian visitation 189 

Church accommodations, 

meagreness of, in cities 88, S9 
Church, Catholic, size and 

growth of..... 85-87 

Character and influence — 87 
Church of England Purity 

Society 123 

Church of England Temper- 
ance Society 122 

Church of England, work of 110 
Churches, Protestant, their 
failure to win working- 
men 82 

Abandoned in crowded 

parts of cities 83 

Foreign 84, 85 

Reflex influence of failure 
to reach workinginen .... 90 

Cities : age of great 18 

Rapid and continuous 

growth of 19 

English 23 

Scottish 24 

Irish 25 

Continental 25, 26 

American 27 

Eastern and Western States 27 

Their attractive power 30 

The paradise of literary 

men 32 

Their fascination for young 

men 32 

For the masses 33 

Their centrifugal forces 33 

Their costliness 33 

Their unhealthfulness 34 

Law of their growth 35 

Effect of increasing wealth 
upou 44 



PAGE 

Cities : of charities 45 

Of railways 46-48 

Of commerce 48 

Of changed agricultural 

methods 49-51 

The probable future 52 

Folly of attempting to 

check their growth 53 

Occupations of 54 

Proportion of workingmen 

in 60 

Foreign -born in those of 

U. S 6S-71 

Religious condition of 
American contrasted with 

that of European 77 

Church accommodations in 88 
Church membership in, 
contrasted with country 89 

Government of 100 

Drunkenness in 101 

Crime in 103 

Poverty in 104 

Socialism in 105 

Civilization, modern, its de- 
pendence upon relig- 
ion 79-81 

Classes, social, in the United 

States 66 

Clergymen, number employed 

in English churches 114 

Clothing-clubs 115 

Clubs, workingmen's 120 

Commercial progress of the 

cities 48 

Communicants' classes 113 

Communicants in city con- 
trasted with country 89 

Costliness of urbau life 33 

Cottage meeting 197 

Countess of Shrewsbury 116 

Crime, increase of 102 



INDEX. 



215 



PAGE 

Cromwell forbids new build- 
ing in London 41 

" Cry from the Land of Calvin 
and Voltaire.".. 1C8, 169, 

170, 171 

Daily Telegraph 146 

Deaconesses 190 

Death-rate, decrease of, in 

England, etc 44 

In cities 45 

Among children 45 

Affe cte d by price of bread . . 47 
Denmark, growth of cities in 25 

Dent, J.J 205 

Dissenting churches, in Lon- 
don 135 

Services of 135 

Distribution, number and sort 

of people engaged in 57 

Down-town churches, how 

sustained 187 

Drunkenness of cities, its sig- 
nificance 101 

Dureau de la Malle : estimate 
of Rome 18 

East Enderies 134 

East London Tabernacle 145 

Edinburgh, new building for- 
bidden in 41 

Elizabeth forbids new build- 
ing 40 

Encyclopaedia Britannica. ..18, 20 

Engel's Law 48 

England, density of popula- 
tion 26 

Population of, in 17th cen- 
tury compared with that 
of New York in 19th .... 28 

Increase of population 44 

Her importations of food . . 47 



PAGE 

England : number of unoccu- 
pied persons in 54 

English cities, their size and 
growth 23 

Famines, their frequency in 

London 36 

Earr, Dr., of Statistical So- 
ciety 47 

Fine Art, free exhibition of. . 129 
Fire, the great, of London.. 40 

Food supply in cities 46, 47 

Foreign-born, proportion of, 

in United States 67 

Distribution of 70-73 

Ratio of Catholics to Prot- 
estants among 75 

Influence of our civilization 

upon 92 

Foreign parentage, proportion 

of, in cities in U. S 69, 70 

France, growth of cities in.. 26 

Freight, former cost of 37 

French people, religious con- 
dition of 168 

"Oblivion* of Bible " among. 169 

Deadness of conscience 170 

Superstition 171 

French Protestantism 166, 167 

Friendly societies 120 

George, Henry 25 

Germans, proportion of, in 

our chief cities 68 

How located in U. S 71 

Ratio of Catholics to Prot- 
estants among 75 

Germany, growth of cities in. 25 

Density of population 26 

Gibbon, estimate of Rome. . . 18 

Girls' Friendly Society 115 

Gladstone, his estimate of the 

world's wealth 43 



216 



INDEX. 



PAGE 

Glasgow : its growth com- 
pared with Chicago 24 

Crowded homes of 63 

Gordon, Dr. A. J 89 

Gospel Hymns, use abroad . . 138 

Gregory, Rev. Canon 110, 112 

Guilds 113 

Hastings, Rev. Frederic 

143, 145 
Highbury Quadrant Congre- 
gational Church 138 

Highlands of Scotland 23, 24 

History, progress of 17 

Hoeck, estimate of Rome.... 18 
Homes of various elements 

of city population 63, 64 

Houghton, Louise Se3 r mour. . 167 
Human attraction, force of.. 29, 30 

Industrial revolution of the 
nineteenth century 17, 18 

Ireland, Bishop 191 

Ireland, changes of popula- 
tion in cities and rural 
parts 25 

Irish, proportion of, in our 

chief cities 68 

How located in U. S 71 

Iron Moulder's Journal 98 

James I. prohibits new build- 
ing 40 

Johnson, Dr. Samuel, his 
fondness for London .... 32 

Juvenal 30 

Labor and capital, conflict 
between 94 

Labor-unions 98 

Lamb, Charles, his fondness 
for London 31 

Lay Helpers' Association 114 



page 

Liturgies 192 

Loftie, History of London.. 38, 39 

London City Mission 157 

London : size of, compared 

with Rome 18 

Growth from ancient times. 

19,20 

Present size 21 

Population of, compared 
with that of Holland, etc. 21 

Streets of, their extent 22 

Present rate of increase .... 22 

Attractive power of 30 

Fondness of Lamb for 31 

Of Dr. Johnson 32 

Famines of 86 

Sufferings from pestilence. 38 

The great plague 39 

Great fire of 40 

Charities of, and their in- 
fluence 45 

Excess of birth-rate over 

death-rate 46 

Food supply 46, 47 

Nativity of population 74 

Position of, in religious 

world 107 

Its social condition 107 

Misery of its poor 108 

Religious problems con- 
trasted with ours 109 

Drunkenness 120 

Social evil in .. 122 

Religious and social prog- 
ress in 161 

Lord's Supper, in English 
churches 137 

Macaulat : said to have 
walked through every 
street of London 21 

Macedonia, Man of 164 



INDEX. 



217 



PAGE 

Machines, agricultural, their 

value 49-51 

Magie, B. C, Jr 28 

Massachusetts : size and 

growth of cities in 27 

Masses, their fondness for 

city life 33 

Manufacture, its extent in 

United States 55,56 

Tendencies of modern 56, 57 

McAll Mission, commence- 
ment of 165 

Present condition of. 165 

Methods of 172 

Salles 172 

Their advantages 173, 174 

Doorkeepers 174, 175 

Music 176 

Speakers 176 

Appointments 177 

Converts 178 

Results 179 

Influence over French Prot- 
estant churches 180 

McAll, Mrs 163, 176 

McAll, Rev. Robert W.. 163, 

164, 168, 169 

Mildmay Institute 125 

Minister's assistants, kind 

needed 185 

Mothers' meetings 114 

Mulb.aH, Michael G 43 

"Progress of the World" 

44, 47, 51 
Municipal government, cor- 
ruption of, its significance. 100 
Music in France 176 

New building in London and 
Edinburgh forbidden . .40, 41 

New England : decay of coun- 
try towns in 27 



PAGE 

New Fork City : compared 

with Rome 18 

With London 50 years ago. 20 

Attractive power of 30 

Crowded dwellings of 63 

Church accommodations in. 88 
New York State, population 
of, in nineteenth century 
compared with that of 
England in seventeenth . . 28 
Nineteenth century, social 
and industrial revolution 

of 17,18 

Noorthouck, History of Lon- 
don 36, 37,38 

Norway, growth of cities in. . 25 

"Oblivion of the Bible" in 

France 169 

Octroi duties 26 

Oldenham Institute 156 

One-room life 147 

" Our Country " 27, 43, 86 

Oxford House 133 

Parish system 198 

Paris : size in comparison 

with Rome 18 

Growth 26 

Attractive power of 30 

Condition in 1871 163 

Religious state of 168 

Bible in 169 

Parochial Missions 112 

Pauperism, growth of 103 

Pestilence in London 38 

Petty, Sir William 20 

Philadelphia : compared with 
London in 18th century.. 20 

Picton, J. Allanson 24 

Plague, the great 39 

I Poverty, increase of 103 



218 



INDEX. 



PAGE 

Proclamations against new 
building 40, 41 

Production, number and sort 
of people engaged in 55 

Professional and personal 
service 58 

" Progress of tbe World".44, 47, 51 

Protestant city churcbes iden- 
tified witb capital 99 

Protestantism of tbe two so- 
cial classes, its difference 76 
Its failure to win working- 
men 82 

Protestants, ratio of, to Cath- 
olics among German- 
Americans 75 

Among foreign-born 76 

Provisions, efforts to fix tbe 
price of. 37 

Prussia, growtb of cities in. . 26 

Puclder, Count 186 

Rae, John 60 

Railways and cities' growtb .46, 47 

Reading, babits of working- 
men 93 

Regent Square Presbyterian 

Church 155 

Religious services, nature and 

frequency of 192 

Rents, their advance, and its 

effect 62 

Roads, the old English 37 

Rogers, J. E. Tborold 62 

Rome, size of ancient 18 

Attractive power of 30 

How she could sustain her 

population 35 

Aqueducts of 35 

Rural life : its increasing at- 
tractiveness 19 

Russia, growtb of cities in. . . 25 



PAGE 

Sabbath, decay of 104 

Salles 172 

Saloons, causes of 101 

Effects of 102 

Number of. 102 

Salvation Army 159 

Sanitary arrangements im- 
proved, and their influ- 
ence 45 

Schisms 202 

Schools, public, their influ- 
ence over the working- 
men 92 

Scotland *. changes of its pop- 
ulation 23 

Cities of, their growth 24 

Census of. 63 

Sectarianism 202 

Separation between rich and 
poor, resulting from sep- 
aration of dwellings . . . 63-65 
Service, professional and per- 
sonal, number and sort 
of people engaged in . . 58, 59 

Singing 194 

Singing, in London churches 136 

Sisters of Mercy 118, 190 

Sisterhoods 191 

Small-pox, its former deadli- 

ness.. 38 

Smiles, Saml., "Lives of the 

Engineers" 42 

Socialism, growth and tend- 
encies of 105 

Social revolution of the nine- 
teenth century 17, 18 

Soci^tes Fraternelles " . 178 

Society of Christian Evi- 
dences 159 

St. Anne's, Limehouse 123 

Steam-engine, its invention 
and application 42 



INDEX. 



219 



PAGE 

Steam-engine : increases the 

world's wealth 42, 43 

St. Jude's, Whitechapel 127 

St. Mary's, Whitechapel 126 

Story-papers, their circula- 
tion in U. S 93 

Stow's History of London.. . 20 

St. Paul's, services in Ill 

Street-car driver, account of. 96 

Street meetings 158 

Strikes, influence of 98 

Strong, Josiah 27, 43, 86 

Suburbs, responsible for city 188 

Sunday-schools, English 136 

Sweden, growth of cities in. . 25 
Sympathy with workingmen 204 

Tacitus : his reference to 

London 19 

Temperance Friendly Socie- 
ties 122 

Tenement-houses of London 148 
Tenth Census U. S. 27, 49, 50, 

54, 55, 63, 68, 69, 70 

Tolmer Institute 143 

Tolmer's Square Congrega- 
tional Church 142 

Tools, improved agricultural, 

their influence 49, 50 

ToynbeeHall 131 

Trade, growth of 48 

Trades-unions 98 

United States: density of 

population 26 

Growth of cities in 27 

Census of. See Tenth Cen- 
sus^ 

Future of cities in 53 

Social classes in. 66 

University Extension So- 
ciety 131 



PAGE 

Unwholesomeness of urban 

life 34 

Vatjghan, Robert 18 

Walker, Francis A 55 

Wealth of the world, its in- 
crease 43 

United States 43, 94 

Its influence over growth 

of cities 44 

Wesley, John 195 

Westminster Abbey, services 

in Ill 

Wheat-fields : their compara- 
tive yield in various coun- 
tries 51 

Wheat,- former fluctuations in 

price 38 

Present prices contrasted 
with former 47 

Yield in various countries.. 51 

White Cross movement 123 

Williams, R. Price : Paper on 

Population of London ... 22 
Winans, Mr., his Scottish 

hunting-ground 23 

Women, work of 191 

Working force in churches . . 183 

Workingmen's clubs 120 

Workingmen, use of term. . 59 
Proportion of, in cities .... 60 

Condition of 61 

Homes of 62, 63 

How affected by increase 

of the world's wealth.. 94, 95 
Need of sympathy with.. . . 204 

Worship 194 

Wright, Carroll D 56 

"Yesterday and To-day" 

178, 181 
Young men fascinated by 
great cities 32 

Zumpt : estimate of Rome.. . 18 



A Book for all who love God and Country. 
hoist 3&3s J a.rr5rT 

The §5tfo TIion§ancl of " that Wonderful Boob, 9 ' 

OUR COUNTRY: 

ITS POSSIBLE FUTURE AND ITS PRESENT 
CRISIS. 

By Rev. JOSIAH STRONG, D.D. 

With an Introduction by Prof. AUSTIN PHELPS, D.D. 



229 PAGES. 12mo, PAPER, 25 CENTS. CLOTH, 50 CENTS. 



This is probably the most powerful work that has come from the 
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marshalled array of unimpeachable facts, it portrays America's 
material, social and religious condition and probable trend, points 
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ness and tremendous force, both shows the means of averting 
danger and inspires enthusiasm for the task. The wide circulation 
of this book has given an extraordinary impulse to the work of 
holding America for the highest, political, social and religious, 
national life. The following notices show what the press and the 
pulpit think of it : 

"Strong, careful, thoughtful." — Boston Journal. 

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Baptist. 

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stirs, quickens, and makes the blood boil with patriotic zeal and Christian 
vehemence." — Pulpit Treasury. 

" ' Our Country' is the one book next to the Bible that I want them (the 
people) to read." — Rev. A. T. Reed, Plainville, Conn. 

" It thrills me through and through." — Rev. T. O. Douglas. 

" The best book of its sort ever published." — Rev . Way land Hoyt> D.D. 

" It seems to me the most important book which has been issued in this 
decade."— Rev. Charles F. Deems, D.D. 

" This volume is a storehouse of information. We recall no recent volume 
which has so much packed into it of value for the minister, the editor, the 
teacher, and in general, the patriot, as this little volume on ' Our Country.' " 
— Christian Union. 

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A Great Book on a Great Subject. 



THE CRISIS OF MISSIONS 

Or, the Voice out of the Cloud. 

BY THE 

REY. ARTHUR T. PIERSOK, D. D. 

!6mo, • $1.25. 



" One of the most important books to the Cause of Foreign Missions — 
and through them to Home Missions also- which ever has been written. 
It should be in every library and every household. It should be read, 
studied, taken to heart, and prayed over." — Congregaiionalist. 

" Surely if the inspiration and the force of this 'Crisis of Missions* 
■were imbibed and felt by the whole sacramental host, there would be a 
mighty uprising, a grand anointing, and a holy crusade to storm the 
"kingdom of darkness all along the line, and speedily add the crown of 
earth to Christ's many crowns !" — Homiletical Review. 

" This is a book for every Christian to read with prayer and a sin- 
cere desire to know his personal duty in this great and glorious work." — 
JV. Y. Observer. 

"We do not hesitate to say that this book is the most purposeful, 
earnest and intelligent review of the mission work and field which has ever 
"been given to the church." — Christian Statesman. 

"A closely compacted array of facts, arranged under distinct heads 
and welded together by the strong rivets of logic, vivified and made almost 
a thing of life by the evident presence throughout its pages of the guiding 
power" of the Holy Ghost." — Right Rev. Wm. Bacon Stevens, Bishop of 
Pennsylvania. 



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A WORK OF PROFOUND INTEREST TO THE 
CHRISTIAN WORLD J 



SOCIALISM AND 

CHRISTIANITY. 

By A. J. F. BEHRENDS, D.D. 
12rvio t Paper, 50 Cents. Cloth, $1.00. 



This book treats from a new point of view the problems raised by the most 
frequently advanced social theories of the day ; their relations to the reciprocal 
duties of Labor and Capital, and the position of the Christian Church with 
reference to the social and industrial movements that are taking place about it. 

CONTENTS: 

I. Social Theories. II. Historical Sketch. III. The Assumptions of 
Modern Socialism. IV. The Economic Fallacies of Modern Socialism. 
V. The Rights of Labor. VI. The Responsibilities of Wealth. VII. The 
Personal and Social Causes of Pauperism. VIII. The Historical Causes 
of Pauperism and its Cure. IX. The Treatment of the Criminal Classes. 
X. Modern Socialism, Religion, and the Family. 

"It is a book for the times in the interest of truth and justice and pure religion. 
We have read it from beginning to end with unflagging interest, and shall read it a 
second time this summer, and hope to lay some extracts before our readers." — New 
York Observer. 

" It is the first approach to a popular systematic presentation of the principles of 
the destructive socialism of the day. The questions which it discusses are now so 
prominent, and their social bearing is so vital, that ministers should deal with them. 
We commend this volume to them, especially to all who desire to get an intelligent 
view of one of the burning questions of the day." —Presbyterian Jotirnal. 

"The book should be in every home ; and we are sure that if the principles which 
it advocates and the information which it presents were given to every family in the 
land, the present disturbances in our country would soon be at an end." — St. Louis 
Cetdral Baptist. 



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i5JNT im^Oa&TiLUT 3B003ECT 



Voice Culture 

AND 

ELOCUTION. 

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A thorough, practical, and progressive work on the Art of 
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of students who have no other instructor. 



" The nearest perfect of aay book intended for the use of students of 
elocution." — Lois A. Bangs, Packer Institute, Brooklyn. 

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"One of the best presentations of the subject of elocution extant." — 
W. F. Lynch, Livermore College. 



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TODD'S 

Index Rerum. 

By JOHN TODD, D.D. 

Revised and Improved by Rev. J. M. Hubbard. 
Quarto. Half leather, $2.50. 

The Index is intended to supply to those who are careful enough readers to 
make notes of what they may wish to use again, a book especially adapted to, 
that purpose by a system of paging by letters, each page having a margin for 
the insertion of the words most expressive of the subject of the note. It con-» 
tains 28b pages of quarto size, ruled and lettered, and in the hands of an 
in lustrious reader forms, in the course of years, a perfect index of his reading, 
as valuable as he may choose to make it complete. It may be fairly said to be 
the most useful and convenient book ever devised for the purpose of making 
permanent the results cf the student's, writer's, and professional man's read' 
ing. Its system and arrangement are such that with the minimum of effort it 
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preservation in the course of the widest reading. 

Says the author : " When you read anything which you may hereafter need, 
place the principal word in the margin under the first letter in the word, and 
the first vowel in it. I will here give some examples as they stand in my own 
Index. Suppose I wish to note something relating to America. I turn to A 
and the vowel e, because A is the first letter and e is the first vowel, thus : — 

supposed to be known in the time of Homer : Thomas's 
History Print, volume i, page 20. 

of France, Picture of : Schlegel's Lecture: volume 2, 
page 199. 

morbid imagination of : Stewart on the mind : volume 
1, page 277. 

character as a speaker : Port. Rhet. Reader : page 250." 



On page A-e. America 
" " Atheism 

" R-o. Rousseau 
W-i. Wilberforce 



OPINIONS OP THE PRESS. 

" I have no hesitation in saying that the plan of the ' Index Rerum,' by Rev. Dr. 
Todd, is better adapted to the object for which it is intended than any other with which 
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the work must preclude the necessity of any recommendation." — Ex-President Mark 
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indispensable part of every literary man's equipment." — Chicago Interior. 

"It is unquestionably the best book of the kind issued." — Alba7iy Evening 
jfourtial. 



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THE FAC-SIMILE REPRINTS. 

BUSTY ASPS PILGBIM'S PBOGB-ESS. From this 

World to that -which is to come. By John Bunyan. Being a 
facsimile reprint of the first edition, published in 1678. 

18mo., paper $0 50 

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HERBERT'S TEMPLE. Sacred Poems and Private 
Ejaculations. By Geobge Heebebt, late Oratour of the Univer- 
sitie of Cambridge. Being a facsimile of one of the gift copies 
printed for circulation by Nicholas Feeeab, before the publi- 
cation in 1633, of which only one copy is known to exist. 

16mo., paper fO 50 

Antique Binding, with Renaissance Design, Gilt Top ... 1 25 

WALTON'S COMPLETE ANGLER ; or the Contem- 
plative Man's Recreation. Being a facsimile reprint of the first 
edition, published in 1653. 

16mo., paper .;.... $0 50 

Antique Binding, with Renaissance Design, Gilt Top. . . , 1 25 



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in a fashion quaint and engaging. They are as pleasant little 
gifts for a friend as one could select. " — New York Tribune. 

[' The purchaser (of the Pilgrim's Progress) will see the 
famous allegory in the form in which Bunyan sent it forth to 
the World." — The Congregationalism - i 

"The printing and binding are so skillfully done in imita- 
tion of the antique as to deceive even the elect. " — Christian Union. 

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of George Herbert's ' Temple,' after a unique copy of the first 
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after the first edition of 1653. The quaint embossed binding 
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as antique. In both cases the result is very successful."— New 
York Everdng Post. 

"All lovers of these sweet old lavender-smelling times wilL 
be grateful for the possession of such facsimiles." — The Critic. . 

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THE 



Student's Manual 

By JOHN TODD, D.D. 



12 mo, Cloth, - - ~ $1.50. 

A work of real worth for students and those who 
desire to become such in the best sense of the word. It 
is written with force and that convincing quality 
which creates an inclination on the part of the reader to 
adopt as his own that fine body of rules and principles 
which it directly inculcates. As a formative book for 
the College period oi life, it is unequalled in our litera- 
ture. It has received the universal approbation of those 
who are interested in the best education. 



"We have no hesitation in saying that this book should be diligently read by every 
student. It is an eminently sensible and stimulating book, and its advice is such as 
students would do well to heed." — Chicago Interior. 

M The book has done an immense amount of good in its day, and is destined to 
accomplish still more in its reissued form. It is the most sensible and attractive work 
of the kind in existence." — Utica Herald. 

ik In our opinion Dr. Todd has thrown together some of the best practical lessons 
for Students that we have ever seen embodied in a single work, just suited to the ex- 
perience of students as they are in our colleges. 

"Every student has felt the need of a friend, willing and able to instruct him on 
the thousand questions which arise in relation to his course of studies, time of labor 
and exercise, his health, diet, discipline of mind, etc. Detached hints on all these sub- 
jects may be found scattered through a library, but they have never been placed with- 
in a student's reach, nor reduced to a form to make them useful. The work before 
us, by Dr. Todd, is in this point of view invaluable."— From Philadelphia U. S. 
Gazette. 

" This book is still, perhaps, the best uninspired guide-book to put into the trunk 
of a boy just starting for college."— Sunday-School Times. 

" Baker & Taylor, of New York, publish a new edition of one of the best volumes 
ever written for young people attending schools and colleges, away from home — ' The 
Student's Manual,' by Dr. John Todd/'— Zion's Herald. 



Mailed on receipt of price by the publishers. 

THE BMER & TAYLOR CO., 

© Band Street, Slew York* 



EVANGELISTIC W0RK, 



New York, October I, 1887. 

THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO. take pleasure in an- 
nouncing the immediate publication of an important book, 
entitled : 

Eyaii^elistic Work in PrinciDle and Practice. 



BY 

Rev. ARTHUR T. PIERSON, D.D. 



ISmo, Clotii, - - - - $1.95. 



It is probable that no subject at the present time more 
^deservedly engages the best thought of Christian workers in 
America — that battlefield of the world's races and religions— 
than that of general evangelization ; and it may be doubted 
if any hand could better set forth the nature of the work, and 
the best means of accomplishing it, than that of Dr. Pierson, 
whose experience in the work itself, and trenchant, incisive 
style of writing, especially fit him to illustrate this subject. 
Sent post-paid, on receipt of price, by 

THE BAKES & TAYLOR CO., Publishers, 

9 BOND ST., NEW YORK. 






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